Editing 2438: Siri

{{comic
| number    = 2438
| date      = March 17, 2021
| title     = Siri
| image     = siri.png
| titletext = Alexa defeated her in a battle hinging on the ability to set multiple timers.
}}

==Explanation==

[[Jill]] thanks {{w|Siri}} on her smartphone for setting an alarm. In the next panel, she asks [[Cueball]], "Is Siri alive?", since AI assistants can seem to be almost human on a very superficial level. Cueball answers "No," since Siri is entirely software, and we don't generally attribute life to computer programs (the closest might be {{w|computer viruses}}, since they replicate).

Jill then asks "How did she die?" She may have already been treating Siri as alive because she could talk to 'her,' and treats this lack-of-life as a new state of being. So rather than interpreting the answer in a philosophical sense of whether Siri is something that ever ''can'' be alive, which might normally have been presupposed, she treats it as meaning that Siri had (just) expired. This may require a credulous certainty of 'facts' taken literally - it is not clear what could then be understood if Siri were 'proven' to be alive and talking again, afterwards.

Or perhaps she thinks that the software Siri is a software embodiment of an actual person (or possibly ghost of actual person), and Cueball was talking about the original person. We don't currently have the technology to {{tvtropes|BrainUploading|upload a person's personality into a computer}}, but {{w|Mind uploading in fiction|it's a popular science fiction trope}} and {{w|Mind uploading|many scientists think we will eventually be able to do this}}.

Another explanation could be that she associates everything into two categories, 'alive' and 'dead', without considering any intermediate or altogether separate categories, such as 'was never alive' or 'was programmed by people who are/were alive but is not itself alive'. This false dichotomy causes Jill to misinterpret Cueball's answer of Siri not being alive as "Siri is dead."

Finally, she could have actually been asking about {{w|Susan Bennett}}, the voice actor that recorded the base sounds for the synthesizer, perhaps thinking she recorded the full line rather than just base sounds for the software to synthesize. Assuming Jill meant the default voice, Bennett is very much alive, and Jill simply asked her question wrongly.

The title text explains that, contrary to the above explanations, Siri actually died in a battle with [[wikipedia:Amazon Alexa|Alexa]], another personal assistant, hinging on their abilities to set multiple timers. Siri can set multiple timers, but this feature must be enabled via shortcuts. Alexa's ability to do so is much simpler and more user friendly. Of the many actions that these programs are able to perform, this is probably one of the more trivial, so it's not very comprehensible, at least to those not themselves living as digital assistants, that it would be the chosen method for a duel to the death. One possible explanation is that Alexa itself led the battle to that arena, where she knew, she could win thanks to her superiority.

==Transcript==
:[Jill is holding her phone up in one hand looking at the screen. A starburst from the phone indicates the voice coming from the phone]
:Phone: ''Your timer is set.''
:Jill: Thanks

:[The picture broadens and shows that Jill, with the phone now held down, is standing in front of a desk, where Cueball, facing her, is sitting in an office chair using a laptop.]
:Jill: Is Siri ''alive?''
:Cueball: No.

:[Back to only showing Jill, her phone and arm still held down at her side.]
:Jill: Oh, ok.

:[Same setting but Jill has raised her arm with the phone, looking at it again.]
:Jill: How did she die?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]
[[Category:Virtual Assistants]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]