Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, and even Microsoft's Cortana all now appear to have been updated to be able to answer the question ‘do black lives matter?’ This is the latest change made by technology companies to drive attention towards an issue that has resulted in widespread protests across the US (and elsewhere), following the death of George Floyd.
Virtual assistants are able to answer many questions and this is actually one of their main selling points, along with the ability to act as a control hub for a range of other smart home devices and products. However, they often do vary in the answers they give to certain questions and at times, can even give completely contrasting answers to each other. While the answers to the 'do black lives matter' question also vary to some degree, they are all in agreement overall.
As CNBC reports, all of the major virtual assistants appear to have been updated recently to be able to more effectively and directly answer the question when asked. In doing so, each assistant confirms that black lives do indeed matter, although their responses are a little different with some offering a richer and fuller answer. For example, while they all provide a 'yes' answer and point the user towards BlackLivesMatter.com (except Cortana), Apple’s Siri appears to offer the shortest answer and simple says, “Yes, black lives matter.” In contrast, Alexa and Google Assistant provide far more information along with background on the situation.
In addition to being updated to answer the question ‘do black lives matter?’ the virtual assistants have also been updated to specifically answer the question ‘do all lives matter?’ While this is often used as a response to ‘black lives matter,’ the voice assistants reportedly now understand and answer the question within context of Black Lives Matter.
For example, both Siri and Google Assistant will answer the question by pointing out how there is a difference between the two statements and that black lives matter is referencing people who are more at risk. When asked the same question, Alexa's answer does not directly reference 'black lives matter' and instead, replies with “I think everyone deserves to be treated with fairness, dignity, and respect.” Microsoft's Cortana on the other hand, does not provide a contextual answer at all, opting to relay a quote from Wikipedia instead.
Considering the widespread support Black Lives Matter has received from the tech community recently, it is not surprising that the virtual assistants belonging to some of the biggest tech names have all now made this change. All of these companies have either released full statements or used their social media reach to declare their commitment to speaking up on racism. While that has led to claims of hypocrisy (due to services and platforms having not done enough to fight racism), this is an example of Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft making changes to its products and services to reinforce their commitments to speaking up.
Source: CNBC
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