Apple Siri
Siri appears to turn silly when it gave users information that US Election Day is on November 8 yet, though Apple already fixed the issue. (Photo: Omid Armin/Unsplash(BY CC 2.0))

Someone must have forgotten to update Siri about the actual date of US Election Day as several users complained that Apple's popular virtual assistant gave them wrong information.

Apple's popular virtual assistant Siri is among the prized possessions of the Cupertino-based company not only because of its ability to return accurate information but also due to its occasional witty and humorous responses. Hence, no one expected Siri to commit an obvious gaffe when several users complained that the virtual assistant gave them wrong information about the US Election Day, which this year falls on November 3 and not November 8.

Several users report that when they greeted Siri with "Happy Election Day" earlier today, Apple's virtual assistant corrected them, saying it is not the US Election Day yet. "Thanks! But Election Day is on November 8th," Siri told users when they greeted the virtual assistant. Thinking that Siri may have heard them incorrectly, they tried asking the assistant to tell them the actual date of the US Election Day and their query evoked the same results.

United States laws mandate the Federal Government to set the date of the general elections of federal officials. The US Statutes at Large, a collection of laws passed by the US Congress, particularly that of the 28th Congress, during its second session in 1845, mandate that elections for electors of the US President and Vice President should happen "on Tuesday after the first Monday of November." The last US Presidential elections were in 2016 and following the letter of the law, the Tuesday after the first Monday at that time was November 8, which undoubtedly, was what Siri referenced when users greeted Apple's virtual assistant with "Happy US Election Day" earlier today. If you check your calendars, the Tuesday after the first Monday this year falls on November 3.

Upon learning the gaffe, Apple moved in to fix the problem of Siri incorrectly recounting US Election Day this year as of November 8 and not the real date of November 3. A few moments later, users reported that Siri already provided them with an accurate date of this year's election.

Apple attributed the gaffe to insufficient contextual data in Siri to answer call-and-response questions as it notes that Election Day does fall on November 8, such as the next major election in the US which is set for November 8, 2022. According to the Cupertino-based tech giant, this is perhaps why Siri informed users that the 2020 US Election Day is yet to occur on November 8 when they greeted the virtual assistant with "Happy Election Day."

The popular virtual assistant, like all other AI services, also experienced its fair amount of growing pains. While Siri has undoubtedly matured from the raw service unleashed in 2011, it still commits intermittent errors like the gaffe today when it informed users that the 2020 US Election Day has not happened yet as it is scheduled to occur on November 8 and not November 3. Apple has since corrected the problem and asking Siri now for the date of the 2020 US Election Day, you will definitely get the response of November 3, 2020.