Google Home Found To Pick Up Fake News When Answering Questions

Looks like even Google’s voice-activated speaker Google Home is not safe from fake news. It was found out recently that Amazon Echo’s rival is vulnerable to hoaxes, propaganda and disinformation published online.

Apparently, when SearchEngineLand editor Danny Sullivan discovered that Google serves up fake news as answers to questions asked by users on Google’s search bar, it led to the discovery that Google Home could also respond to user queries with data from fake news sites.

Re/code says the reason why Google Home also uses bogus search results to answer to inquiries is due to Featured Snippets, a feature of Google Search that generates algorithmic matches to search queries from third-party sites.

A Google spokesperson has since confirmed the problem with Featured Snippets in an email to Re/code. “Unfortunately, there are instances when we feature a site with inappropriate or misleading content. When we are alerted to a Featured Snippet that violates our policies, we work quickly to remove them, which we have done in this instance. We apologize for any offense this may have caused.”

It’s trickier when one is relying on Google Home for answers because users do not see the different entries on the search results page. Furthermore, the device does not inform users where it got its answer from, nor does it offer other answers.

For now, users should be wary of Google Home’s responses to certain questions, especially the political ones. Slash Gear has learned that when the smart speaker is asked if former U.S. President Barack Obama is planning a coup, it would respond that he is in spite of the lack of evidence to prove this.

Google may be aware of the problem here, but it does not really intend to do something to this hit-or-miss feature. Instead, the Mountain View giant is said to be relying on keen netizens to report fake news when they spot one.