Living with Irish Siri

I previously mentioned how I’m using Siri more and more on my devices (and especially the new HomePod). One thing I didn’t enjoy was the voice, so I gave her an ‘upgrade’.

I now use the female Irish Siri voice and it’s much easier to listen to. She sounds friendlier than the male voice and (geek alert) reminds me of Tony Stark’s “Friday” AI in the Iron Man and Avengers movies.

At least here in the UK. I’m guessing that when those films were released in the US and elsewhere, there was a different accent in use. (But seeing as Star Trek Picard has revealed the existence of Irish-sounding Romulans, I supposed anything is possible!).

The main thing is that they didn’t construct an Irish Siri voice that is ‘stage Irish’ – the kind of accent adopted by non-Irish actors that usually sets Irish people’s teeth on edge. While we all seem to have the capacity to hear someone speaking with an Irish accent across a very crowded airport terminal, we can also spot a fake accent like it’s a mutant power. And these lead to much eye-rolling.

I think there exists only a handful of Hollywood actors who can pull off a convincing Irish accent and even these result in Irish people arrowing their eyes and tilting their heads like a Labrador.

So anyway, Irish Siri is here to stay and I’m enjoying our more frequent conversations.

(Photo by Przemyslaw Marczynski on Unsplash)