OCTOBER 2019 MACWORLD 51A
bout a month ago, a report in
The Guardian (go.macworld.
com/hear) exposed the fact
that third-party contractors
have been listening in on a small
percentage of Siri requests as part of a
“Siri grading” program. Apple promised to
halt the Siri grading program (go.macworld.
com/halt) while it conducts a “thorough
review,” which left us wondering how the
company would move forward (go.
macworld.com/mvfw), as human grading of
any machine-learning process is an
essential part of training the algorithms to
improve them.
Apple now appears to have finished itsIMAGE: IDG
Apple apologizes for Siri grading
program and will resume it this
fall after changes
“We realize we haven’t been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologize.”
BY JASON CROSS