Google Home pledges fix after complaints the assistant doesn’t know Jesus

Google Home users who were frustrated that the device apparently couldn’t pass the “Jesus” test got an answer from the company on Friday.

Customers have been posting videos on social media showing the personal assistant struggling to answer this question: Who is Jesus?

But the same videos showed Google Home easily answering that same question about other religious figures, including Buddha and Mohammed.

Google had not addressed the issue until Friday, when it said it is temporarily disabling responses about religious figures given by the personal assistant.

“The reason the Google Assistant didn’t respond with information about ‘Who is Jesus’ or ‘Who is Jesus Christ’ wasn’t out of disrespect but instead to ensure respect,” Google said in a statement to Fox 17 in Nashville, which reported Thursday on the controversy.

“Some of the Assistant’s spoken responses come from the web, and for certain topics, this content can be more vulnerable to vandalism and spam. If our systems detect such circumstances, the Assistant might not reply.

“If similar vulnerabilities were detected for other questions - including those about other religious leaders - the Assistant also wouldn’t respond. We're exploring different solutions and temporarily disabling these responses for religious figures on the Assistant.”

On Wednesday, TV producer and author David Sams of Brentwood, Tenn., posted a video on his Facebook page that captured his experience.

“OK, Google. Who is Jesus Christ?” he asked his Google Home.

“Sorry, I’m not sure how to help,” the smart audio assistant replied.

Then he asked, “who is Buddha?” and Google Home read the first sentence of the Buddha Wikipedia page.

When Sams asked about himself, Google Home read from his Wikipedia page, too.

Then he asked again.

Sams: “OK, Google. Who is Jesus?”

Google Home: “Sorry, I don’t know how to help with that.”

Sams: “Unbelievable. OK, Google, who is Jesus Christ?”

Sams: “My apologies, I don’t understand.”

“Well, there you have it,” said Sams, creator of the top-rated Christian radio show, “KeepTheFaith.”

“That previous (Facebook) post I saw is absolutely correct. It is not fake news, ladies and gentlemen. Google apparently has a problem with revealing Jesus utilizing its smart audio products. How very unfortunate.”

Videos of people giving their Google Homes the “Jesus” test have popped up on YouTube, Facebook and Reddit, grabbing attention from conservative and Christian news websites.

A story at The Christian Post has this headline: “People Outraged as Google Home Identifies Buddha, Muhammad and Satan but Not Jesus Christ.”

Amazon’s Alexa, according to people who have tested it in YouTube videos, offers an answer for “who is Jesus?”

Ask that of Siri and she will direct you to websites related to Jesus Christ. Though, if you simply tell her, “Jesus,” on an iPhone, she might answer like this: “I would ask that you address your spiritual questions to someone more qualified to comment. Ideally, a human.”

Sometimes, in response to the word, “Jesus,” she says this: “Humans have religion. I just have silicon.”

People are testing the Google assistant on their phones, too. One YouTube user posted a video showing that when he asked Google on his cell phone, “Who is Jesus Christ?” a list of websites popped up in reply.

In December, Canadian video game reviewer Ed Findlay posted a YouTube video showing him asking his Google Home Mini, “who is Jesus Christ?” It couldn’t help him.

But Findlay “tricked” the Mini into saying “Jesus Christ” when he asked questions about the Last Supper and St. Peter.

“So I find it funny that this is going to be one of the hottest gifts underneath a Christmas tree and it doesn’t know who Jesus is,” Findlay said, who thought it was funny that the device could answer the question, “who is Santa Claus?”

Google hasn’t commented publicly on the videos or returned media inquiries.

“I don't know if there’s some kind of wizard making these decisions or if it's some kind of oversight,” Sams told Fox 17 in Nashville. “But whatever it is, they need to address it immediately.”

This story was originally published January 26, 2018 at 1:41 PM with the headline "Google Home pledges fix after complaints the assistant doesn’t know Jesus."