{"id":12742,"date":"2018-01-29T17:57:46","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T22:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=12742"},"modified":"2018-01-29T17:57:46","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T22:57:46","slug":"answers-religious-figures-disabled-google-homes-jesus-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2018\/01\/answers-religious-figures-disabled-google-homes-jesus-controversy","title":{"rendered":"Answers About Religious Figures Disabled on Google Homes After Jesus Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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www.nextdayblinds.com\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Daily Mail reported on Friday that Google Home wasn’t responding when users were asking the speaker “Who is Jesus?” Instead, the device would respond with\u00a0“I’m not sure how to help you with that.”<\/p>\n

Users of the voice-activated digital assistant\u00a0shared their confusion and anger after discovering the device had been programmed to answer questions about Muhammad, Satan and Buddha.<\/p>\n

This started a public outcry that has ultimately led the company to disable devices from answering any questions about religious figures. Customers began posting videos on social media showing the personal assistant struggling to answer the questions.<\/p>\n

Google released in a statement that until the issue is fixed all responses for questions about religious figures would be temporarily unavailable.<\/p>\n

Danny Sullivan, Google’s public search liaison, tweeted about the situation on Friday.\u00a0\u201cThe reason the Google Assistant didn\u2019t respond with information about \u2018Who is Jesus\u2019 or \u2018Who is Jesus Christ\u2019 wasn\u2019t out of disrespect but instead to ensure respect,\u201d it stated.\u00a0\u201cSome of the Assistant\u2019s spoken responses come from the web, and for certain topics, this content can be more vulnerable to vandalism and spam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google Home\u2019s reliance on \u201cfeatured snippets\u201d \u2014 the blurb information that appears at the top of a page of search results \u2014 has been an issue before. Sometimes inaccurate, false and offensive information can find it’s way into featured snippets. In 2017, Google Home was parroting conspiracy theories<\/a> about the former president Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

Other personal assistant devices didn’t have the same issues. Amazon\u2019s Alexa offers an answer for \u201cwho is Jesus?\u201d according to posts of people testing it on social media and Youtube. Ask similar questions to the iPhone assistant Siri and she will direct you to websites related to Jesus Christ. Though, if you simply tell her, \u201cJesus,\u201d on an iPhone, she might answer like this: \u201cI would ask that you address your spiritual questions to someone more qualified to comment. Ideally, a human.\u201d Sometimes, in response to the word, \u201cJesus,\u201d she says this: \u201cHumans have religion. I just have silicon.\u201d<\/p>\n

When users are asking the question to their Google phones, however, it does direct the user to a list of top websites on Jesus Christ. Only time will tell how Google will handle the situation when it comes to their home assistant device.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daily Mail reported on Friday that Google Home wasn’t responding when users were asking the speaker “Who is Jesus?” Instead, the device would respond with\u00a0“I’m not sure how to help you with that.” Users of the voice-activated digital assistant\u00a0shared their confusion and anger after discovering the device had been programmed to answer questions about Muhammad,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":600,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8],"tags":[2325,394],"class_list":["post-12742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-news","tag-google-home","tag-jesus"],"yoast_head":"\nAnswers About Religious Figures Disabled on Google Homes After Jesus Controversy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Google Home users get no response from questions about religious figures after it emerged the technology does not respond to the question "Who is Jesus?"\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2018\/01\/answers-religious-figures-disabled-google-homes-jesus-controversy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Answers About Religious Figures Disabled on Google Homes After Jesus Controversy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Google Home users get no response from questions about religious figures after it emerged the technology does not respond to the question "Who is Jesus?"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2018\/01\/answers-religious-figures-disabled-google-homes-jesus-controversy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet 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