Goines On: Artificial friends

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Are they not real?

The third morning after returning from France, Goines asked Siri to turn off the garage light. Within a couple of seconds, the light went off, and shortly thereafter Siri began to acknowledge the request and provide status, but Goines clicked his phone off before she was half finished.
    He immediately regretted his discourtesy, for Siri had ever been patient, courteous, helpful – even friendly. She behaved like a friend, artificial or not.

Ask Wednesday: Hey, Siri...? (humor)

What is your favorite question of all time?

[Editor's Note: “Even those who don’t own an iPhone or iPad know about Siri, Apple’s smart voice-powered assistant. Siri is supposed to do everything a personal assistant would – schedule dates, set reminders, find directions, send messages, or make calls. But what makes Siri different from traditional voice recognition software is its intelligence. You can ask Siri whatever you want and get a plausible answer. Many people find it amusing to ask Siri hilarious or provocative questions.” –From “50 Funny Questions to Ask Siri”
    But today’s question we thought of ourselves. And we were disappointed that Siri gave the same answer to us that she – for us, Siri is female – gave to one of the 50 questions cited above.]