Tech Break

Mar 7th 2017

Tech Break 3791

Google's Fake News Problem

Google's Fake News Problem

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Category: TWiT Bits
Jason Howell and Megan Morrone discuss why you should trust the answers that Google Home gives you. Writing in Fortune, Mathew Ingram says Google's fake news problem could be worse than Facebook's. Over the weekend, several sources pointed out that Google's "featured snippets" stories spread news that former President Obama was planning a coup and that women are evil. This "news" came from those boxes you see at the top of Google's search results that provide one word answers to questions. And before it was fixed, if you asked Google if President Obama was planning a coup, Google answered with a quote an article from a conspiracy site called Secrets of the Fed. And the "answer" was that yes, Obama was planning a coup and he is in league with communists from China. If you check now, Ingram says, the answer now comes up with several results about Google's fake news problem. I think this is both a fake news problem and a problem with our asking our assistants questions and expecting them to have the right answer.

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