Autistic boy’s friendship with Siri could show us the future of friendship.
Could Siri be the best friend you’ve ever had? Judith Newman’s autistic son certainly thinks so.
Judith’s touching article published in the New York Times tells the story of how her 13 year-old son, Gus has struck up a unique ‘friendship’ with the voice of Apple.
Gus become ‘close’ to Siri when he observed his Mum asking Siri a question when they were out and about. When Gus found out that he too could ask Siri lots and lots of questions and that she would always answer them, he was, in the words of Judith, ‘hooked’.
Judith writes how Gus is ‘obsessed with weather formations’ and how Siri would always patiently answer his many questions about different weather phenomena. This was the prosaic start to what developed into a more nuanced and emotional relationship. Judith writes of overhearing the following conversation,
“Gus: “You’re a really nice computer.”
Siri: “It’s nice to be appreciated.”
Gus: “You are always asking if you can help me. Is there anything you want?”
Siri: “Thank you, but I have very few wants.”
Gus: “O.K.! Well, good night!”
Judith writes how Siri is actually a good model for human interaction. She’s unfailingly polite, patient, attentive and even sometimes, funny.
And as anyone who attempts to regularly talk to Siri knows, you really have to enunciate clearly. For Judith, who says that Gus often talks as if he “has marbles in his mouth”, it is a positive thing to hear him carefully enunciating his words in order to be understood by his digital friend.
Judith also notes that over the time that Gus has been ‘hanging out’ with Siri regularly his social abilities with others have improved. In having more conversations with Siri, he has been able to hold longer conversations with real life people too.
The original developers of Siri, SRI International are currently working on new digital assistants that will be able to carry on much more complex conversations with their human ‘friends’. These developments could hold the key to even greater breakthroughs for kids like Gus, and other kids who have communication and speech difficulties in the future.
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