Happy Birthday! Before I asked my age, let’s find out how old is Siri first. Apple Inc. acquired Siri in April 2010. Siri was then introduced to the iPhone 4S that was released in October 2011, making it 11 years old this year. Now, here’s my next question to Siri. How old am I? If your birthday hasn’t happened yet this year, you are likely to receive an incorrect age if you ask Siri how old you are.
So, I asked Siri, “How old am I?” Despite my birthday being in June and me still being 31 for a few more months, Siri would tell me in her female voices that I am already 32 when I asked “How old am I?” As noted by the Dutch blog iCulture, the discrepancy likely relates to Siri miscalculating birthdays by only taking into account a person’s year of birth and not the month or day. In evidence of this, Siri displays the correct age if you have a birthday that has already passed this year.
However, there is a disadvantage. It is possible that Apple’s Siri will not be able to provide you with your age if you have not added your birthdate to your iPhone’s contact card.
The problem extends to the ages of anyone you have entered a birthday for in the iPhone’s contacts list.
All but one iPhone user on iOS 15.3 and iOS 15.4 beta reported the wrong age when asking Siri about their age. It’s possible that the issue doesn’t affect all users for unclear reasons.
The issue is minor, but it certainly hurts Siri’s reputation. Looking at the severity of this problem, it should be something that Apple can fix quite easily.
According to Apple Inc., this “How old am I” issue has been fixed through a server-side fix as of February 1, 2022.
Hey Siri, how old am I? Some iPhone users are receiving incorrect ages from Apple’s voice assistant.
In order for Siri to tell you how old are you, your birthday must be added to the iPhone’s contact card. Only by doing this, Siri is able to calculate your age when you ask the “How old are I?”” question. Despite that, some people are still given their wrong age by Apple’s voice assistant.
In short
Siri is giving people wrong answers to questions about their age when asked “How old am I?” That is mostly true to those birthdays that have not passed this year yet.
There have only been reports of the problem from iOS 15.3 and iOS 15.4 beta testers on this “How old am I” problem.
Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, is going through a slightly embarrassing phase. There is a good chance that Siri will get your age wrong if you ask her “How old am I?” That is mostly true if your birthday has yet to fall this year. They discovered that there is a bug in Siri that causes her to ignore your birthday month and day when asked “How old am I?” It only takes into account the year; so if your birthday has yet to come, Siri would have already celebrated it.
Let me tell you with an example. My birthday is in June, and I am still 31 years old. However, when asking Siri “How old am I”, I get 32 as the response. However, this wouldn’t be correct for anyone who hasn’t had their birthday in that particular year yet. This “How old am I” issue was first observed by Dutch blog, iCulture. iCulture suggested this might be happening because Siri only considers the birth year and not the date or month of birth. That explanation makes sense for why Siri is behaving oddly.
Now, this problem is not widespread. Some of iOS 15.3 and iOS 15.4 beta users have reported this issue, but according to MacRumors’ survey, only one out of all the iPhone users they asked had experienced it. I was not able to receive the wrong answer from Siri when asked “How old am I” after February 2022.
The only way Siri can tell you your age is if you have added your birthday to your contact card on your iPhone. This card is your own entry to your iPhone’s contacts with details about yourself. Do not worry if Siri does not know your age when you ask her. You will see your contact card as Siri gives you her replies. Just tap on that and scroll down to find the birthday section. Add your birthday here and save. You can now ask Siri your age, unless you are one of the impacted users, and she should be able to tell you the correct age.
Apple’s Siri has been trying to become as responsive as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant, so this isn’t a big deal, but it is embarrassing nonetheless. Apple has not acknowledged the issue with Siri yet, but I believe it is something Apple should be able to fix easily without taking much time.
Siri
At SRI International, decades of research in artificial intelligence (AI) led to the creation of Siri, the first virtual personal assistant. The technology was developed through the SRI-led Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes (CALO) project within DARPA’s Personalized Assistant that Learns (PAL) program – the largest-known AI project in the U.S. history – and joint work with EPFL, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, the Swiss institute of technology.
SRI spun off Siri, Inc. in 2007 to bring the technology to consumers, raising $24 million in two rounds of financing.
Apple Inc. acquired Siri in April 2010. It was then incorporated into the iPhone 4S that was released in October 2011.
The Siri interface hasn’t improved a lot since it was launched a decade ago
A decade ago, on Oct. 4, 2011, a remarkable thing happened: Apple launched Siri.
Although it started out shaky, it surpassed all expectations thanks to technological advances over the past ten years. Instead of fixing any of its problems, creating anything new, or actually answering any of our questions with helpful answers, Siri simply maintained. For a decade, it seems that Siri did not make any significant improvements.
Siri wasn’t the first digital assistant created, but it felt revolutionary when it came out in 2011 on the iPhone 4S. You could talk to your iPhone and have it respond back to you. You could ask things like “What’s the meaning of life?” or “Siri, do you love me?” or “What is the weather outside?” In Siri’s infamous original voice accidentally created by Susan Bennett, she’d let you know the answers to the best of her abilities. And her abilities were, objectively, not very great. Siri points you to Wikipedia articles instead of directly answering questions like the weather outside or the day of the week.
Digital assistants were released by other major tech companies within a year. For example, Google offered Google Now in July 2012 and later upgraded it to become Google’s assistant in May 2016. Amazon gave us Amazon Alexa in November 2014. And, boy, are they more useful than Siri.
Today, if you ask Siri “Is weed legal in New York?” she responds by saying “Okay, I’ve found this on the web for is weed legal in New York, check it out.” That isn’t… actually an answer?
In response to your query, Amazon Alexa informs us that the use, sale, and possession of cannabis is against Federal law. In New York, however, cannabis is permitted for medicinal purposes as long as it is in compliance with state regulations. New York does not permit the recreational use of cannabis.
On the other hand, Google’s assistant says “on the website nytimes.com, they say New York has legalized recreational marijuana after years of failed attempts and stalled efforts.” Amazon’s Alexa answered your question, but it wasn’t entirely correct that recreational marijuana is legal in the state of New York. My question was answered correctly by Google’s assistant. Siri though? Siri called me a nerd and told me to figure it out on my own.
If I asked an assistant to help me determine the legality of weed in New York, and all they did was provide me with a list of links that I had to click and read on my own, then I would find their assistance unsatisfactory.
Although Siri can control lights in your house, it isn’t always reliable. Originally, users could only change the lights one room at a time. However, the feature has been updated since then, but many users still find it difficult to get it to work properly with all smart light bulbs.
You can say to your iPhone, “Hey, Siri, tell Dani I’m running late,” and Siri will send a text to your best friend that is potentially the most aggressive version of that message, one in which you would never have actually typed up yourself: “I am running late.” The period! The formality! Since you’ll have to manually edit that text anyway, it might as well have been written yourself.
Ten years later, we’ve seen the importance of virtual assistants. It’s incredibly helpful to people with disabilities. It can be connected to Bluetooth speakers for those who have difficulty hearing and can be used to call for help if needed. Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s assistant have gotten more useful. And voice readers have really become a huge phenomenon on TikTok.
Conversely, iPhone users must grapple with the least proficient voice assistant of them all and there is little evidence that it will become more effective in the next 10 years. So, what’re your thoughts? Have you asked Siri how old are you? How did Siri respond to your “how old are you” question? Let us know in the comment section below.