'Hey Siri, send a message, and this time get it right'

Technology is a wonderful thing, but it has its limits. Case in point is voice-to-text messaging services that often send embarrassing texts to family and friends which leave me feeling stupid, if not illiterate. Apparently, I’m not alone.
Insider Intelligence reported recently that about 77 million people used Apple Inc.’s Siri at least once a month last year to handle oral commands, including written text messages, emails and social-media posts. That number was up more than 10 percent from 2020, meaning I’m in good company when I use the hands-free option to send a quick message through my phone while driving.
Problem is, Siri doesn’t always know what I’m trying to say and her (I like the female voice option) guesses can spell trouble, cause confusion, or if you’re lucky, bring a smile.
Just this week I sent a message to my wife telling her where I was. “I’m at the Breamer Center for a meeting, curt.” She laughed at my poor spelling and punctuation errors, but for a guy who makes a living with the written word those faux pas aren’t always funny.
I learned that lesson the hard way a few years back using another speech transcription software called Otter. It’s a wonderful tool that lets journalists record interviews and print out transcriptions without listening again (a HUGE time saver) but like its tech sister Siri, if Otter doesn’t understand, it guesses.
The end result was a quote published incorrectly, which was horribly out of context and understandably upset the source. No excuses. That gaffe was on me, a hard lesson learned.
Fortunately, talk-to-type programs have improved in recent years. A Wall Street Journal article credits fewer flubs to the rise of machine learning, defined as a subset of artificial intelligence that makes speech transcription more efficient by studying large collections of language patterns to guess what users are saying. In other words, if I say the same thing often enough, Siri will start to get my gist.
My inner circle of family and friends just laugh at my mangled messages, as I do at theirs, but all you can do is hope the recipient will read between the lines when technology takes control.
That same WSJ article quoted a nurse from Ontario who was talking a message to the office while driving, then cussed at the driver in front of her. Oops:-(
Or the marketing professional from New York who was sending a quick text to his boss, then paused to say “I love you” to his son. “We love you, too,” his boss replied:-)
Ahhh, technology.
KURT JOHNSON can be reached at kjohnson@ hamilton.net