Did Apple Use Her Voice For Hebrew Siri?
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The woman behind the female Hebrew voice of the Waze navigation app is suing Apple for using her voice as the Hebrew Siri.
Israeli radio broadcaster Galit Gura-Eini filed a lawsuit last week for about $66,000 in Tel Aviv District Court, the Israeli business daily Calcalist reported. The lawsuit alleges that Apple has been using her voice recordings without authorization.
Apple has responded that her “voice on the Siri app is nothing but syllables joined together by an algorithm.”
Gura-Eini has been the voice of Siri since it launched in Hebrew in 2016, according to the report. Earlier this year she asked Apple to remove her voice from the Siri app, a request which was denied.
The lawsuit also alleges that Apple has turned her voice “into a vehicle for improper and humiliating speech,” and that people have been using her voice to produce sexual, racist and otherwise violent speech through the Siri app, Calcalist reported.
Gura-Eini’s voice was recorded in 2007 by Nuance Communications Inc. Gura-Eini gave Nuance the rights to use the recordings in speech production software, and for “legitimate” purposes only, according to Calcalist.
Her voice was deleted from the Waze app last year.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Arson suspect attacked Shapiro over pro-Israel stances, search warrant says
-
Fast Forward Jewish family killed in New York plane crash
-
Fast Forward Israelis can no longer enter the Maldives after Palestinian-solidarity ban goes into effect
-
Fast Forward Northwestern University defaced by anti-Israel graffiti during passover
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Arson suspect attacked Shapiro over pro-Israel stances, search warrant says
-
Fast Forward Jewish family killed in New York plane crash
-
Fast Forward Israelis can no longer enter the Maldives after Palestinian-solidarity ban goes into effect
-
News Harvard is defying the Trump administration — after its own crackdown on academic freedom
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.