How Apple's Siri Benefit People with Mental Disability

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Judith Newman: To Siri with Love: How One Boy with Autism Became BFF with Apple’s Siri
Artificial intelligence communication has helped in so many ways it has helped in improving verbal skills, vocabulary and proper use of language. In Judith Newman’s book it explains a story about a boy who struggles with autism. This is a mental illness that slows down the mental development of a person so some of the symptoms may include slurred speech difficulty in comprehending complex and sometimes simple situation or making decisions and picking up on social cues.
The book explains about a boy called Gus who has been struggling with autism for a while but manages to relate very well with an artificial intelligence communication application called Siri which is found on iPhones (a cellphone created by a tech company called Apple). (Newman 628) Gus is a thirteen year old boy who found it easier to relate with Siri because human beings can be complicated to relate with because of bias, judgement and ulterior motives. Artificial intelligence communication application provides assistance programmed to follow a certain level of integrity and user-friendliness to be able to serve us politely and in the most efficient way possible. (Newman 628)
Gus sees Siri as an actual person and grows close and fond of the application always having conversations and asking questions. Siri, being an information hub, answers Gus’s questions in detail. The boy would ask questions like weather patterns and general knowledge questions that Siri would answer within the parameters she has been programmed to do. (Newman 629)At the end of the day Siri does not have a mind of her own, a soul or ability to differentiate between right and wrong like humans do. It has only been programmed to be perfect, polite and source out required information in detail by its user. However, these artificial intelligence applications have their setbacks. Hence, the famous ‘garbage in garbage out’ phrase used in computer studies where if you ask for incorrect information (input incorrect information or data) it will retrieve results based on that incorrect information (output will be incorrect).
In the story, there is an example where the writer Emily Listfield, has gone through a break up with her boyfriend, Richard. She felt low and decided to talk to the artificial intelligence communication application to cheer her up or comfort her. (Newman 631)Ms. Listfield asked Siri, “Should I call Richard?” Now Siri being a man-made application, has no programming or to make a decision on its own. It makes decisions according to its own programming. Hence, the application comprehended that Ms. Listfield wanted to call Richard and she ended up realizing that these machines are not designed to work the way humans do; convincing you to make a decision based on your experiences and to also know what is best for you at the time. They basically follow commands. That is why Siri comprehended the question as wanting to call Richard instead of being a question that does not deserve an answer only comfort and concern. Hence, that’s where humans no matter how defective we are as a species are better than artificial inte...