Siri accused of being anti-abortion, Apple denies claims

While she's typically known for having a quirky personality, Apple's Siri is being accused of reinforcing some controversial views, as well.

Groups are saying that Siri, the new artificial intelligence helper for the iPhone, is anti-abortion.

According to the BBC, Siri has been known to fail at locating nearby abortion clinics and when asked, will sometimes recommend pregnancy advice centres instead. The Raw Story found that Siri is unable to find a single abortion clinic in New York City, and doesn't understand what Plan B is, instead offering up a Google results page for the term instead.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation, penned a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook in response to these findings:

"Siri is a great tool that mixes humour and sarcasm in responding to questions — and it is another example of how your company is on the cutting edge of demonstrating how technology can transform the way we share and access information," Keenan says in the letter. "Thus, it is disappointing to read that a tool like Siri is missing the mark when it comes to providing information about such personal health issues as abortion and contraception."

Her letter goes on to say that in some cases, Siri directed people to anti-choice organizations that masquerade as comprehensive health clinics.

Apple denies the claims that Siri is pro-life, telling the New York Times that Siri's oversight is in fact a glitch.

"Our customers want to use Siri to find out all types of information, and while it can find a lot, it doesn't always find what you want," said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris to the New York Times. "These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone. It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better, and we will in the coming weeks."

One blogger on ZDNet questions if Apple is using Siri's beta tag as a crutch for a product that is going to need continuous improvements. There doesn't seem to be an end in sight for Siri's beta testing, and it would be strange for Apple to use a product still in beta as its killer feature on the iPhone 4S. Considering some products from Apple have never left beta once they've entered the market, Siri might be hitting snags like this for a long time to come.