Tag: Joanna Stern

Siri AI and The Spam Call Problem

Put AI to work banishing spam

Listening to podcasts after each WWDC is always a bit of information overload, but occasionally you catch a bit of analysis that seems perhaps pertinent. 

One of the podcasts I listen to his John Gruber’s Talk Show Live event that he’s been hosting for a few years now. After his infamous Something Is Wrong In The State of Cupertino post last year, Apple execs stayed away after having been guests in years previous. They stayed away this year as well.

This year, like last, Gruber put together a panel that featured The Verge’s Nilay Patel and Joanna Stern, formerly of The Wall Street Journal, now with her own gig, New Things With Joanna Stern. This year and last offered excellent commentary by both, and given the wait and see cynical posture I’ve adopted for all of Apple’s upcoming offerings, worth a listen. 

One interesting tidbit stood out that I want to highlight in the context of my ongoing complaints and requests to Apple about making the handling of spam and unwanted phone calls easier. 

Joanna seemed to be quite impressed with what she’s seen of Siri AI in the early going, citing a number of examples that she tried out during the event. The one that stood out to me is this:

I said, “What could I do that’s fun near the California Theater? I have some time to to kill,” and I don’t know if… I don’t know exactly what was the prompt or what was the thing, but it started suggesting things I could do locally. But also, it had access to my voicemail, so it knew that I had just gotten a message from my uncle who asked me to speak at his book club, and it said, “You… you could get back to my your uncle about his book club engagement, you would have some time to do that.” Okay, that’s crazy. It really is, right? And but what if that was sensitive information, right?

The key is Siri AI having access to voice mail. Regardless of however you feel about what data and info Siri AI needs to have about you to develop “Personal Context,” if Siri AI has access to your voice mail it seems it should be a relatively easy technological hop, skip, and jump to just automatically delete the flood of spam calls that have already figured out ways around any of the current wack-a-mole tricks that are being used. 

Obviously the larger point Joanna makes about “Personal Context” and a new level of trust is spot on. It is one many iPhone users will have to reckon with. But I’ll tell you this. For my own personal context, if Siri AI can automatically banish to digital hell all of the fake calls that now use names to try and circumvent current spam call prevention I’ll be grateful. 

The only reasons I can think of for Siri AI (or Google’s Gemini on Android phones) are business reasons and relationships with the mobile carriers. Apple’s “Personal Context” or Google’s “Personal Intelligence” are the names of the game, or so they claim. It seems logical to me that the technology exists to eradicate more of this curse that same technology makes possible and we all are prey to, whether it be phone calls, emails, or texts. 

Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links. 

Joanna Stern Launches New Things

Discover something new

Well it took her long enough. Tech writer and enthusiast Joanna Stern has launched New Things With Joanna Stern, her new site for delivering all the new things she discovers in tech. 

A headline and article byline above a fun, cartoon illustration. The headline reads, "It’s Time. Meet My New Thing." with a subheadline below that reads, "A new kind of independent tech journalism. Newsletters! Videos! Fun!". Below that is a small headshot of Joanna Stern and the byline: "Joanna Stern Apr 22, 2026 . 6 min read". The central image in the bottom half of the graphic is a large blue rectangle containing the text: "NEW THINGS WITH JOANNA STERN". It is surrounded by cartoon icons: a woman’s face on a phone, an arrow pointing right, a cartoon smiley face inside a square, a star, a speech bubble with three dots, a mouse pointer, a floating laptop, a speech bubble with parallel lines, another star, a lightning bolt, a microphone, an arrow pointing up-left, a battery, an arrow pointing up-right, and a search bar with a magnifying glass at the end.

I’ve been a fan of Joanna’s work since back in the days when we were all reviewing netbooks and followed her work on Engadget, The Verge, The Wall Street Journal and various other places including ABC News. 

I highly recommend you give her new site a look see, because not only does Joanna discover and report on intriguing new tech, she’s one of the most, if not the most entertaining in delivering the goods. I’ve subscribed and look forward to following along on this, her next new thing.

You can watch the introductory video below.

 

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links.