Obama is planning a coup… according to Google Home

ByCraig Haley

In another demonstration as to why so called smart devices are not really that smart, we have Google Home confirming to worried users that yes, President Obama is indeed planning a coup.

Google Home is a smart assistant that tries to field any question you throw at it. From how many kilometres in a mile to who won the World Series in 1970, the Google Home will try its best to get you an answer.

To do that, the smart assistant connects to the Internet and uses Google’s own search engine to try and locate that answer for you, and then relays it back to you. (Sorry to burst the illusion for those who believed the device itself just knows everything.)

The only problem is, as many are aware, not all websites listed on Google could be described as able to provide accurate answers.

To circumvent that problem, Google Home only uses ‘featured websites’. Those are the websites that can pop up at the top of regular search results when performing a normal Google search on your phone or computer, when you ask Google a question. Basically, sites that Google trusts more than other websites.

There is still a problem though. Many of those featured websites are still well below par in terms of trustworthiness.

So, with that in mind, take this video of BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones asking whether Obama was planning a coup.

Not good news, certainly! According to Google Home, Obama may be in fact be planning a communist coup d’état at the end of his term in 2016.

But of course, it’s nonsense. Not only because 2016 has been and gone (as has President Obama) with no coup d’etat in sight, but because the answer came from a known conspiracy website called “Secrets of the Fed” that have, in the past, purported all sorts of nonsense including Illuminati and New World Order themed theories.


Sponsored Content. Continued below...




Other sites have pointed out other flaws with featured websites on Google where Google Home retrieves its answers. For example, a Google search could claim that Presidents Truman, McKinley and Harding were members of the Ku Klux Klan, and when asked why fire trucks are red, you’d be given a Monty Python joke instead of the real explanation.

According to Rory Cellan-Jones, Google have now at least altered the response to the Obama coup question and the Home device now states the following –

Unfortunately there are instances when we feature a site with inappropriate or misleading content

Of course, the hope now is that Google will be more careful with what sites it features above regular results so its Home device becomes a little less conspiracy-inclined.

Oh, and for your information, there is 1.6 km in a mile and the Baltimore Orioles won the 1970 World Series.