Malcolm Owen
A British Member of Parliament has demonstrated the issues of having the 'Hey Siri' function active during meetings, by suddenly being heckled by his iPhone while addressing his peers in the UK House of Commons on Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson was giving a statement to the House of Commons about the ongoing fight against the Islamic State, reports the BBC. During his speech at the despatch box, Williamson's iPhone started to speak, interrupting proceedings while the MP moved to silence Siri.
Video of the incident suggests the "Hey Siri" command was triggered, most likely by Williamson's mention of Syria or Syrian. Following the verbal prompt, Siri started to advise "I've found something on the web for Syria Syrian democratic forces," then providing a few details before dismissal.
When Siri interrupts as you're delivering a statement to Parliament... pic.twitter.com/NDsNUJDPV3
— BBC Parliament (@BBCParliament) July 3, 2018
Speaker John Bercow commented "What a very rum business that is," while other attended MPs quietly laughed at the situation. In response, Williamson apologized for the "intervention," before noting "It is very rare that you're heckled by your own mobile phone."
Parliamentary rules do allow MPs to have mobile devices on their person during debates, but are required to disable ringtones to avoid causing a disturbance. While smartphones and tablets can be used to "keep up to date with emails," they are not allowed to be used as a prompter for speeches or in debates themselves.
MPs are also urged to avoid spending too much time using such devices rather than discussing political issues. In 2014, MP Nigel Mills apologized for misusing his mobile phone during a Commons committee hearing, by playing Candy Crush Saga.
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28 Comments
Okay that was really funny, Gavin's response was good, took it all in stride.
Not sure what is going on with Siri lately, but I had this happen recently seem to puck up what is thought was hey say and begin listening to what you said next and tried to give you an answer.
I was Watching the World cup and they had Hey Siri advertisement that it would tell you the latest standings and my homepod heard the hey sire world cup and it began rattling of the current standings
I am an avid fan of WWE wrestling, the proverbial soap opera for men. The current women’s champion is Alexa Bliss. When I’m watching the show guess who is always trying to butt in with unsolicited commentary?
Lucky it wasn't a scary laugh!
Funny as it is I think this demonstrates the need to rethink the AI activation voice commands in general. How that's done is debatable of course. I'd like to name my own devices.
Fox are deliberately doing it during the World Cup Football shows by having a voice over say "Hey Siri list the up coming football matches". My paired HomePods now acting as my TV's sound system via Apple TV 4K respond with alacrity.
The possibility for more mischievous use is obvious. If every Apple device had a call sign that was semi-unique it would stop this nation-wide level of misuse and of course some but not all accidental triggers.