Siri thinks John Travolta is dead (AAPL)

pulse

December 6, 2017 10:48 AM

John Travolta is not, in fact, dead.

If you ask Siri how old American actor John Travolta is, it'll tell you something surprising: That he died in 2009 at age 54.

Of course, John Travolta isn't dead. Instead, it's a bug inside Apple's virtual assistant that's causing it to spread fake news. Business Insider tested it out and found that Siri also gave this false answer in Poland and Australia.

It looks like the error was caused by Siri misreading news reports of the death of Travolta's son Jeff, who did die on January 3, 2009. Business Insider contacted Apple to inform it that John Travolta is alive, and the company said it would fix the issue.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously spoken out against fake news. "The bigger issue is that some of these tools are used to divide people, to manipulate people, to get fake news to people in broad numbers, and so to influence their thinking," Cook said in November.

And this isn't the first time that Siri has spread fake news. In October, Apple's virtual assistant thought that the national anthem of Bulgaria was "Despacito."

pulse