On my second day with Apple’s new HomePod, I asked the artificially intelligent speaker to play some music. Siri, the virtual assistant that powers HomePod, enthusiastically replied, “O.K., let’s get going with some Dashboard Confessional.”

I cringed. “Hey, Siri,” I said. “Nobody likes Dashboard Confessional.”

Siri replied, “Sorry, I couldn’t find the song ‘Nobody Likes Dashboard Confessional.’” Then to my horror, HomePod continued playing a track by the emo rock band.

At the time, I gave Siri a pass. After all, Apple’s HomePod, a rival to smart speakers from Amazon and Google, is supposed to study your music preferences over time to create special playlists just for you. I had had only one day with HomePod.

But after a week — during which I asked HomePod to play my favorite tunes from artists like Beck, Talking Heads and David Bowie — the smart speaker still did not learn. Instead, like a stubborn D.J., Siri kept playing music by artists outside my music palette: Taylor Swift and Leroy Francis, to name just two.