Our technologies are slowly taking over our lives, from the ever-present necessity of the mini-computers in our back pockets to the rise of smart TVs, smart devices, and even full-blown smart homes.
AI assistants are also becoming more and more prevalent in our increasingly technological world, and two supreme options are vying for the crown. Amazon’s Alexa has been slowly honing its approach, graduating from glorified DJ to full-blown virtual employee, managing schedules, operating smart homes, and even doing our shopping for us.
Siri is much the same — some would argue even better — but, as with anything, the Apple staple has a few shortcomings. One of which was recently flagged by TikTok user David Seung, a comedian who stumbled across a hilarious but inconvenient gap in the virtual assistant’s capabilities.
Noting that he’s been leaning on Siri’s “Korean man” voice to help teach him Korean — no, it isn’t working — Seung plunged into a hilarious explanation of exactly why you shouldn’t follow in his footsteps. For one thing, his reliance on Korean man Siri is really only resulting in missed exits — it’s hard to follow directions in a language you don’t speak — but more importantly, assigning Siri a new voice has some unforeseen consequences.
Most notably, it turns out the virtual assistant fills in any gaps you’ve missed in your cellular experience. And, if you’ve failed to create your own voicemail message, that duty lands in Siri’s lap.
Which, at least in Seung’s case, leads to a very confusing, nearly unintelligible outgoing voicemail message. Due to his decision to tap Korean man Siri as his virtual assistant of choice, Korean man Siri steps in to fulfill the task, and tries “his best in English.”
The result is a hilariously garbled message, as Korean man Siri attempts to inform callers that the person they’re trying to reach is not available and invites them to record a message after the beep. For an AI that doesn’t speak English, it’s actually incredible, but for anyone attempting to leave a message, it’s probably all but impossible to understand.
Noting that he uses “this phone for work,” Seung laughingly asks the powers that be, “Why would Apple do this?” It’s a great question, and one that viewers shared once they got an earful of Korean man Siri’s shoddy attempt at an outgoing voicemail.
With numerous commenters noting that “he’s just trying his best,” there’s more praise than criticism for the AI’s valiant attempt in the comment section. “Why does Korean Siri sound so wholesome though,” one commenter asked. “I want to do this just to confuse people but don’t want to miss my exit,” another added.
That ambition is common among commenters, as is distress over the discovery. People everywhere learned, thanks to Seung, that their own outgoing voicemails are similarly AI-created, and the revelation is answering a lot of questions.
Issues like the one faced by Seung and so many commenters are increasingly common in this day and age, but they’re also nothing new. After all, virtual assistants have been around since the mid-60s. They were certainly a far cry from what we’re working with today, but those early attempts paved the way for Alexa and Siri. For decades we’ve been slowly honing the approach, and in the early 2010s we got our first glimpse of the dazzling AI that would become Siri and Alexa. They’ve evolved massively from those early days, but virtual assistants are actually a tried-and-true staple of technology.
There’s still a long way to go, however, as Seung’s video makes clear. It’s a hilarious gap in Siri’s capabilities, and one that most certainly led to plenty of confusion, but it’s also quickly becoming a feature rather than a bug in the eyes of viewers. Since Millennials hate picking up the phone so much, we may as well make the voicemail process a little more fun for the people we’re ignoring.