Commentary: Siri, should I believe in God?

Ask Siri whether you should believe in God and you'll receive the reply, "I would ask that you address your spiritual questions to someone more qualified to comment. Ideally, a human." Or, "It's all a mystery to me." Or the too-cute, "I believe in the separation of Silicon and spirit."

Not surprising answers, given the nature of the question. Why should Apple put itself in the middle of a centuries-old discussion?

Apple's Siri is a virtual intelligent assistant, but there is nothing intelligent about Siri or its peers, such as Microsoft's Cortana, Google's Assistant and Amazon's Alexa. Virtual assistants are not conscious and do not "think" like humans. Their machine-learning software has enabled them to provide greater