Asking Siri To Define 'Mother' Brings Out The Apple AI's Inner Samuel L. Jackson

Wouldn't it be awesome if one of the voice options for Siri was Samuel L. Jackson? That is not likely to happen, given the actor's penchant for swearing profusely (on the big screen, anyway). Be that as it may, you might be surprised that Siri is not afraid to drop an f-bomb on occasion, as one user discovered. In a video uploaded to YouTube, Siri can be heard reading a vulgar answer to a simple question.

The video shows an iPhone owner asking Siri to "define the word mother." Siri's initial response is G-rated, as she reads off the first dictionary definition that says, "A woman in relation to a child or children to whom she has given birth." Siri then asks if she should read the second definition, and when prompted to do so, she replies, "As a noun, It means short for motherf***er." Have a look/listen below (NSFW-Langauge):


We were able to replicate Siri's R-rated response on our iPhone 6S Plus, though apparently it works across a range of iOS devices, including iPhones and iPads. You can also get Siri to curse on a Mac system running macOS. For added fun, switch the voice accent to Australian or British (Settings > Siri & Search > Siri Voice).

Apple didn't suddenly program Siri to speak in vulgarities. Instead, what's happening here is that Siri is pulling the definition from the Oxford Dictionary. For this to work, you have to specifically ask Siri to "Define the word mother" instead of simply saying "Define mother." The latter will still get you a definition, but without the option to continue reading.

The second definition for "mother" in the Oxford Dictionary is the 'vulgar slang' definition, which Siri dutifully reads aloud without warning. Apple is likely to issue an update that prevents this from happening, but as of this writing, it still works.

Thumbnail Image Source: Flickr via Gage Skidmore