A flock of sex-crazed Canadian iPhone owners were disappointed to discover that Apple’s voice-enabled virtual assistant Siri might not be the best travel companion when it comes to locating escorts.
Canadian outlet The Toronto Star reports the virtual assistant has curiously been directing users seeking paid sexual pleasures to a certain bar in Toronto, which definitely appears to be the wrong place to find them.
Not too long ago, Meltdown eSports Bar co-founder Alvin Acyapan began receiving cryptic late night calls asking whether the establishment happens to also offer sexual services.
“I thought people were getting the wrong number or maybe it was a prank by someone listing our phone number on some unscrupulous website,” the owner told The Star.
However, the peculiar occurrence kept repeating for months until last Sunday an anonymous caller revealed it was Siri that tipped him off to look for prostitutes in Meltdown.
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As the Canadian outlet has confirmed, it turns out that all local searches for ‘prostitutes’, ‘hookers’ and ‘escorts’ on Apple’s voice-enabled assistant seem to lead to the video game bar.
While it remains unclear what is causing the virtual assistant to wrongly direct sex-seekers to Meltdown, Acyapan speculates it could be the close resemblance between the words ‘escort’ and ‘esport’. “It’s only one letter difference,” he added.
The owner has since reported the glitch to Apple, but is yet to hear back.
Acyapan is hardly the only business owner dealing with inaccurate indexing in Apple Maps. Still, unlike others, Acyapan seems to be looking on the bright side. “I see the humour in it,” he said. “I always thought of it as a funny anecdote to share with my friends.”
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