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Google has apologised after its Google Home device was caught reading out fake news items to certain questions, and presenting them as the correct answer.
Google said it was working on the problem, but only on a case by case basis.
Over the weekend owners of the Google Home voice-activated speaker noticed that when they asked it whether Barack Obama was planning a coup, its answer was not quite what they expected.
"According to details exposed in the Western Centre for Journalism's exclusive video, not only could Obama be in bed with the Communist Chinese …" the Google Home device was caught saying.
The device went on to say that "Obama may be funding a communist …" but at that point struggled with the pronunciation of 'coup d'etat'.
David Rowe, professor of cultural research at the University of Western Sydney, pointed out that the device did not randomly choose incorrect answers, and he questioned how often it could be occurring.
Google Home works by simplifying another Google feature called Snippets, which uses an algorithm to select an answer to a search question and frame it as the truth.
So when a person performs a search on Google, in many cases a box will feature at the top of the search results screen with a direct answer — a featured snippet.
"It was designed to draw the eye to it — it's the first answer, it's in a breakout box, it has all the markers of authority," Professor Rowe said.
"But it may be fake."
Professor Rowe said one solution would be for Google to make the process less automated.
"As it's been suggested, it can actually use humans to exercise some judgement here rather than its machines," he said.
"That of course is a question for Google, because it likes to minimise the amount of human intervention in this on the grounds of speed and cost."
Google issued a statement to say that it was working on the problem.
"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 apologise for any offence this may have caused."
Professor Rowe said although some of the fake answers might seem obviously wrong, it was not safe to assume that everyone would have that response.
"Both adults and children have a lot of faith in search engines, but children have even more," he said.
"They have less life experience to kind of check the answer again, and they have a more naive faith on the whole in technology."
Peter Fray, professor of journalism at the University of Technology Sydney, said Google's response was not an adequate solution as it required humans to point out when the device was wrong.
He said a good way to solve the problem would be to put in place a more systematic approach to media literacy in schools, as early as primary school.
"We need to teach students how to understand how news is created, understand the difference between the fact and fake," he said.
"Give them if you like the lexicon in the dictionary to understand journalism, give them some of the building blocks around truth."
Topics: computers-and-technology, science-and-technology, journalism, company-news, information-and-communication, australia