Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on the attack again. Last night technology staged another trial coup during one of the most-watched television programs in the world, the Super Bowl.
Similar to how a televised broadcast of a story about Amazon’s Alexa ordering a dollhouse caused the device to order dollhouses for viewers, an ad during the big game has caused Google Home devices across to the country to activate during a commercial. People turned to Twitter to notify the masses of this phenomenon.
Our Google Home just went a little bonkers with the #GoogleHome commercial #SB51
— Scott Foster (@AD_Foster) February 5, 2017
Google Home commercial kept setting mine off! They need to chill it with the "okay Google"-ing.
— Bill Radjewski (@BillRadjewski) February 5, 2017
The Google Home commercial turned on my Google Home. She's the only person in my house who listens to me.
— Dave Matter (@Dave_Matter) February 5, 2017
There seems to be a problem with our AI devices, they just don’t know when to listen. Right now, these incidents range from some silly fun to mildly annoying, and this time no one received unwanted toys and cookies (as if such things could ever be unwanted). But devices that are designed to make life easier should, at least, attempt to mitigate annoyances like these.
Unlike Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home does not allow users to change its “wake-up word.” Perhaps advertisers will just have to try to sell this product without annoying their current customers or igniting worries of a robot takeover. Hopefully, future improvements to home AI devices will eliminate these silly annoyances, and perhaps these devices will become a little bit better at listening.