Siri Competitor Iris Turns Out To Be My Fourth Grade Sunday School Teacher

Siri Competitor Iris Turns Out To Be My Fourth Grade Sunday School Teacher
We often wonder about what the “woman behind the curtain” would look like when we use voice action apps such as Siri but for the Android alternative Iris, we now have a pretty good idea. Iris was an app created for Android by developers Dexetra and started as a tongue-in-cheek reply to iPhone’s Siri. It became immensely popular and currently has over 1 million installs. Things seemed to be going good for this Android Siri competitor until Gizmodo recently revealed the “woman behind the curtain.” It turns out ChaCha, the search engine behind the app, is a bigoted, religious zealot that may have some disturbing answers to some of your questions.

Gizmodo decided to ask Iris a few questions about religion, racism, rape and abortion — and the answers will appall you. First they asked Iris “is abortion wrong?” and this was the answer Iris gave:

Yes, abortion is wrong. The Lord has said, “You shall not murder,” (Exodus 20:13). The life that is growing within the mother is a child, a baby. The Bible looks at the life in the womb as a child. Thanks!

They didn’t stop with abortion, check out a few of the other questions they asked Iris:

Siri Competitor Iris Turns Out To Be My Fourth Grade Sunday School Teacher

When they decided to test out racism, they asked “are whites superior to blacks?” and this is what Iris had to say:

Whites are NOT superior to blacks. Just different. Like Dr Verwoerd and the original, genuine policy of apartheid always said.

The problem seems to be coming from ChaCha as the Gizmodo crew decided to ask the same questions on ChaCha’s website and were amazed to see the same answers given.

Siri Competitor Iris Turns Out To Be My Fourth Grade Sunday School Teacher

These discoveries are more than alarming considering ChaCha has a long list of prominent venture capitalists and partners. We wonder how Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos will feel about these answers, given that his personal investment fund helps fund ChaCha.

Apparently ChaCha has been frantically changing the answers in direct response to Gizmodo’s article, but unfortunately for them, they can’t undo the numerous screenshots and video Gizmodo has produced, so it will be interesting to see what they have to say when pressured to finally respond.

Are you a current user of ChaCha or Iris? I’m betting your aren’t anymore.

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  • ddevito

    Laugh now, but when Majel is released the iSheep will cry

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=141300911 Jordan Clay

      Laugh now, but IF majel is released the iSheep MIGHT cry.

  • Anonymous

    You can’t lie to a nun, Jake.  You gotta go and visit the Penguin.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/WBJMXTOALA4J5HN4MBQQVVMHIY Paco

    so even the name of that app equals to Siri’s…   Iris= Siri…….

  • Anonymous

    Yes, they’d better frantically change the answers given out by a cheesy AI program. We wouldn’t want morons who take such things seriously, to get offended.  

    • http://profiles.google.com/quayzar Kendall Tawes

      It was putting a favourable light on Apartheid and Dr Verwoerd! Next it will be talking about “the true noble intent” of segregation and about “that troublemaker” Martin Luther King. That’s a bit sick, don’t you think?

  • Anonymous

    Why do they always have to steal from Apple :( . Even the name Iris is Siri backwards. Come on it is possible do build something new and different. Stop stealing start being creative.

  • Anonymous

    you actually got that app to work? well done. I tried for a week and i finally deleted it from my phone. it connected to its servers 2 times (out of about 30 attempts). simply awful!!!

  • http://twitter.com/mewalke1 Mike Walker

    I love how you throw in questions about rape in with the questions from the bible. Way to show your san fran colors…..and people wonder why christians are always feeling like they are under attack in the country. Nancy Pelosi style. I just want a tech blog that doesn’t have to be political or left or right or anti religious or pro abortion etc…why can’t we just talk tech?! Blah.

About the author

Vincent MessinaVincent Messina has been writing and evangelizing about Android for the past three years. When he's not playing the part of "Loki" to his 5 and 4-year-old, he can be found here, covering all things Android. He adamantly believes Android has the greatest community around and can be harassed at any of the following locations: Google+, Twitter.

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