“Siri, what’s your favourite movie?” you may ask your iPhone one rainy day, who would reply (half the time), “I’ve heard that ‘Blade Runner’ is a very realistic and sensitive depiction of intelligent assistants.” The fact that we can ask our phones this question, the style of answer, and the example used, all reveal a lot about the direction “smart” technology is taking society. Siri, along with other smartphone assistants are much like Rachael, the biorobotic assistant in the 1982 movie ‘Blade Runner’ who, after being implanted with human memories, believes she is actually human. I’m not suggesting Siri thinks it is human but that we seem to find comfort and efficiency in designing our smartphone assistants to communicate on a human level. Tell Siri that you are drunk and it replies, "I hope you're not driving anywhere”, ask Siri to talk dirty to you, it replies, "the carpet needs vacuuming," ask it “what is […]