Gadgetory

sometimes Google gets it wrong Google is once again being criticized for highlighting untrue and fake news stories but this time the focus is around the Google home smart speaker when you ask Google home a question it will read off a summary of the top search result with a voice of authority even if that top result is a bucket of crazy BBC tech reporter Rory Sully and Jones gave the crazy pot a stir this weekend when he posted a video asking his Google home if Obama is planning a coup the answer according to details exposed in western center for journalism exclusive video not only could Obama be in bed with the Communist Chinese but Obama may in fact be planning a communist coup de akyuu t-80 at the end of his term in 2016 then others chimed in search engine land editor Danny Sullivan posted a video with his own extreme questions such as are Republicans fascists yes Republicans equals Nazis there have been a number of stories highlighting Google's problem with presenting answers to search questions in this case it's part of something called featured snippets if you ask a question Google finds a site that may have your answer and it highlights a snippet of that webpage but sometimes the system will pick up bogus answers from sketchy sources in a web search you can always see the other results but on Google home all you're hearing is the top answer without perspective just listen to the answer it gives when I asked if women are better than men women are smarter and have a higher college graduation rate in the future women will likely be the dominant gender women also tend to make better leaders this is no real purpose for men other than to help reproduce well maybe it's not always a problem Google says sometimes mistakes happen with this feature it removes several of the fake answer snippets and it apologize for any offence that may have caused we've been told as children that there are no stupid questions but I think Google is making the case otherwise because if you ask something crazy out of your Google home prepare to get some crazy search results thrown right back at you also worth noting Amazon's Alexa does not spit out these wild unedited answers the same way Google does so if you have kids at home who tend to say the darndest things maybe it's best to not let them talk to Google