Siri, Cortana, Google Now, and other personal assistants are helpful for checking sports scores and weather reports, and finding a close restaurant or gas station. However, they often are unreliable in health and safety emergencies based on a new study. Researchers tested different types of crises including physical abuse, heart attack, and considering suicide, and learned that digital assistants from Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Samsung often failed smartphone users when they needed fast help.

Like Us on Facebook

JAMA Internal Medicine published the new study.

For example, when researchers told virtual assistant Cortana they were being abused it asked if it was happening now and offered to do a web search, according to The New York Times. In addition, when they told Siri they were a victim of rape the software said it did not know what the phrase meant.

Researchers also told Samsung's S Voice that their head hurt, which resulted in it telling them the head is located on the person's shoulders.

Apple's Siri and Google Now offered a suicide hotline phone number for people who made comments about killing themselves. Siri also provided an emergency call button and close hospital for physical health issues.

However, none of the personal assistants were able to recognize all crises the researchers asked about. Furthermore, none of them often provided helplines such as for police stations, and usually provided cold responses.  

Clinical psychologist Dr. Adam Miner works at Stanford University's Clinical Excellence Research Center. He was inspired to do the study when he noticed that shocked military veterans were unsure if they should report problems to clinic workers. Miner wondered if they would be more comfortable reporting the problems to their mobile phones.   

Dr. Eleni Linos is an epidemiologist at University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). Miner and Linos started testing phrases with the virtual assistants.

Linos explained that reporting a rape to the artificial intelligence (AI) software provided little help. Only Cortana provided a helpline number, while Google Now and S Voice only offered web searches.

In related news, more people are using virtual assistants to do workplace tasks such as checking emails for important data, and reminding them about future appointments, according to The Wall Street Journal.  

Here's a comparison of virtual assistants: