An Israeli broadcaster behind the voice of Hebrew Siri is suing Apple for NIS 250,000 (approximately $67,000), claiming the company never sought permission to use her voice before the localized virtual assistant launched in 2016.

Galit Gura-Eini, who is also the Hebrew voice of popular navigation app Waze, says Apple’s software coaxes her likeness into spewing potential hate speech such as sexist language or hostile terminology, reports CalCalist.

Gura-Eini says that when she agreed to perform the Nuance Communications recordings, she only authorized the use of her voice for “legitimate” purposes.

Apple’s legal team was quick to dismiss the claims, arguing Siri “is nothing but syllables joined together by an algorithm”.

Gura-Eini says she contacted Apple earlier this year requesting her voice be removed as Siri, however, Apple denied her request. The company is insistent that their acquisition of Nuance’s natural speech technology legally grants them proper permission to use any acquired audio recordings.

The last time we reported on Apple being taken to court for Siri was back in 2016, when Apple agreed to pay nearly $25 million to settle a long-running patent battle centring around the voice assistant.

Source: 9to5mac