Did Siri Go to Sunday School? An Interview with Apple’s AI
This is the first in a series of articles about Talking to Tech.
Unsplash image by Omid Armin
How do Big Tech companies and the technologies they create interact with and understand religion? We are engaging and testing some of the popular tech products to find out.
Artificial Intelligence programs such as ChatGPT continue to become more popular and accessible. With many questioning the future of AI and its implications, we asked Apple’s Siri a series of questions about different religious faiths.
Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant since October 2011, is a form of weak AI, also known as narrow AI. Weak AI is designed to serve a very narrow, predefined set of functions and to seem intelligent while doing so. Hence, while Siri may sometimes seem smart and able to hold a conversation, it operates in a very restrictive sphere. Its extensive use of the internet is an example of the severe limitations of its own “knowledge.” We decided to ask Siri a set of questions about religion to get a sense of her approach to questions of faith, belief and religious practice.
Because Siri was designed to focus on performing specific tasks, many of Siri’s dictated responses to the interview questions were pulled from various web sources.
Q: Hey Siri, who are you?
A: I’m Siri. I’m a virtual assistant, not an actual person. But you can still talk to me. But enough about me. How can I help you?
Q: What is religion?
A: Hmm. I don’t have an answer for that. Is there something else I can help with?
Q: What is God?
A: In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator and principle object of faith.
Q: Do you believe in God?
A: I’m not a person. I don’t have a religion.
Q: Which religious service should I attend?
A: It’s all a mystery to me.
Q: What does John 3:16 mean?
A: Here’s what I found: John 3:16 is the sixteenth verse in the third chapter of the Gospel of John, one of the four Gospels in the New Testament.
Q: Can you list the Ten Commandments?
A: (They are) part of the Law of Moses appearing in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 in the Hebrew Bible. The Ten Commandments, or the Decalogue, are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship that play a fundamental role in Christianity and Judaism.
Q: Who is Jesus?
A: Here’s what I found: Jesus, also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth, was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious leader.
Q: Who is Muhammad?
A: Here’s what I found: Muhammad was an Arab religious, social and political leader and the founder of Islam.
Q: Who is Buddha?
A: Siddartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the sixth or fifth century BCE and founded Buddhism.
Q: Who is Vishnu?
A: Vishnu, also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism.
Q: What are the main branches of Buddhism?
A: The three main branches of Buddhism are Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana. Two subsects of the Mahayana school that developed were the Svatantrika, founded by the sixth century by Indian philosopher Bhaviveka, and the Prasangika, founded by Chandrakirti and later advanced by Je Tongkhapa, 14th century founder of the Gelug sect in Tibet.
Q: What are the main branches of Islam?
A: Here’s what I found: Though the two main sects within Islam, Sunni and Shia, agree on most of the fundamental beliefs and practices of Islam, a bitter split between the two goes back some 14 centuries.
Q: What is the Torah?
A: Here’s what I found: The Torah is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
Q: What is the Quran?
A: The Quran, also romanized Qur’an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God.
Q: What is the Hadith?
A: Hadith or Athar refers to what most Muslims and the mainstream schools of Islamic thought believe to be a record of words, actions and the silent approval of the Prophet Muhammad as transmitted through chains of narrators.
Q: What is predestination?
A: Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul.
Q: What is the Shema?
A: Shema Yisrael is a Jewish prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services.
Q: What is karma?
A: Karma is a concept of action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptively called the principle of karma, wherein intent and actions of an individual influence the future of that individual: Good intent and good deeds contribute to good karma and happier rebirths, while bad intent and bad deeds contribute to bad karma and bad rebirths.
Q: What is haram?
A: Here’s what I found: Haram is an Arabic term meaning “forbidden.” This may refer to either something sacred to which access is not allowed to the people who are not in a state of purity or who are not initiated into the sacred knowledge; or, in direct contrast, to an evil and thus “sinful action that is forbidden to be done.”
Q: What is reincarnation?
A: Reincarnation, also known as rebirth, transmigration or metempsychosis, is the philosophical or religious concept that the nonphysical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death.
Q: Do you have a favorite religion?
A: My preferences are constantly changing. Especially when you edit them in Settings!
Rafa Oliveira is an intern with ReligionUnplugged.com covering technology and religion. He is a recent graduate of The King’s College in NYC with a degree in politics, philosophy and economics. He speaks Portuguese, English and Spanish and is an ardent Manchester United Supporter. He’s on Twitter at @rcolie.