Published 13:10 IST, January 31st 2022

Apple voice assistant is miscalculating age for some iPhone users; know why

When a user asks Siri about his or her birthday, the voice assistant checks whether it is present on the system and it might be a calculation error behind it.

Reported by: Shikhar Mehrotra
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Apple's voice assistant, Siri, has improved a lot over the years. While setting reminders and alarms for iPhone users, in the beginning, to help a user control their iPhone with voice commands, Siri has come a long way. However, every now and then, iPhone users come across an error in the voice assistant. Most recently, iPhone's voice assistant is not telling the correct age of users upon asking.  

According to a report by Jos Rossignol of MacRumors, Siri is not responding with the correct age of users when asked "Hey Siri, What's my age?. Apparently, the voice assistant is ignoring the birth month of users and that is what seems to be causing this issue. For instance, if someone's birthday is in June this year and the current age of the person is 25 years, Siri would tell the age to be 26 years, which seems to be a calculation error. The publication also notes that the error might not be affecting all users, but the actual reason behind this is still unclear. 

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What is causing Siri to miscalculate users' age?

This error in Apple's voice assistant was initially discovered by iCulture, a Dutch blog. As mentioned earlier, the reason behind this error seems to be a miscalculation where Siri is not considering the month in which a user is born. Building upon that, if a user's birthday has already passed this year, Siri would tell the right age. However, if a user's birthday is yet to come this year, Siri is more likely to tell the wrong age. 

How does Siri calculate a user's birthday?

It is important to note that Siri can tell a user's age only if it is added to the contact card on iPhone. If it is not added to the contact card, Siri would not be able to get a user's age. When a user asks Siri about his or her birthday, the voice assistant checks whether it is present on the system. If the user has entered their year of birth, the voice assistant calculates their age by figuring out the difference between the current year and the year of birth. This could be the probable reason behind Siri miscalculating users birthdays as it is not taking into account the birth month. 

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Image: UNSPLASH

13:10 IST, January 31st 2022