NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — UPDATE: A Google spokesperson has responded to this story and said they are temporarily disabling certain responses of religious figures. Click here for the full response.
Audio technology like Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa are becoming a dominant source for information.
But now, it appears one of the most common names is unknown to Google Home.
And some people are sounding the alarm about what the technology tells you when you ask about Jesus.
Brentwood resident David Sams owns a Google Home and an Amazon audio speaker. He says both give two different answers when asking “Who is Jesus Christ?”
“I even asked Google who is David Sams? Google knew who I was, but Google did not know who Jesus was, Google did not know who Jesus Christ was, and Google did not know who God was,” Sams said.
Smart speakers are a technology owned by about 40 million Americans — that’s about one in six people in the nation.
And this religious conversation at home is making waves on social media.
Comments, videos and test results posted asking “Who is Jesus?”
The general response from Google Home is “I’m not sure how to help you with that.”
There’s still no response from Google as to why that is the response.
“It’s kinda scary, it’s almost like Google has taken Jesus and God out of smart audio,” Sams said. “First it started with schools.”
Google Home refers to Jesus Christ when asking about the Last Supper and even Saint Peter.
And there’s plenty of information on the prophet Muhammed, Buddha — even Satan.
Nashville resident Martin Collins says she thinks this feeds into a bigger problem.
They took prayer out of schools, they think just taking Jesus out of everything is politically correct these days and I think that’s the stem of a lot of our problems,” Collins said.
Collins has no doubt Google has purposefully programmed Jesus out of its audio speakers.
“To keep from stepping on toes, political correctness,” Collin said. “That seems to be more important these days than what’s right and what’s wrong.”
Sams is calling for answers from Google as it’s become the main source of information readily available that so many are coming to depend on.
“I don’t know if there’s some kind of wizard making these decisions or if it’s some kind of oversight,” Sams said. “But whatever it is, they need to address it immediately.”
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