Alexa giving false information?

[PaulJB]

I asked Alexa "How old is George Bush Senior" and was surprised to hear that he died on 20th July 2018 - probably not as surprised as he will be.

No such news has reached any other media so I presume he is still alive (but unwell) and that Alexa has him confused with his cardologist who was murdered on that day.

Amazon "Chat" help is of no use - they wasted 20 minutes of my time repeatedly trying to get me to reset my Echo & are too dense to see that Alexa is picking up "False News"

I am in UK but can anyone else ask the same question "How old is George Bush Senior"?

[AlanH]

Also in the UK and getting the same response. Asking “Is George Bush Senior still alive?” gets the same response too.

[asianrocker]

Wow this is the worst fake news ever by an AI. I am in US and have same shocking wrong answer!!

Oh my Twitter experience will be awesome today I will tweet about this today. This is a major malfunction spreading misinformation on a former president!!

[StevenR]

I think I know why Alexa is giving this response. On 21st July a cardiologist who was shot dead. This cardiologist happened to have once treated George Bush Senior, and so this was widely reported with headlines like "Heart doctor to George HW Bush dies in bicycle shooting" (that was the headline in The Guardian) and, it would appear, this has confused Alexa.
The best thing to do is probably to send feedback to let Amazon know so they can correct this.

[jwlv]

Watch this spiral out of control as news media report on this false info which in turn creates more chatter with the ex-president's name and words related to dying.

[zaphod]

for questions as such alexa defaults to the wikipedia entry. either a short summary or the full text. the problem using wiki as a source is the overwhelming majority of pages can be edited, changed by anyone at any time. there are volunteers with wiki who attempt to check everything not only for errors but for lack of citations, for offensive material, the whole nine yards so to speak. there just aren't enough volunteers to check the 25 Billion+ unique pages.

amazon using wiki as source material the problem. granted wiki is much better than it used to be but point being wikipedia unfortunately is not the Encyclopedia Britannica. that example a traditional source staffed by and created by informed professionals that checked, rechecked and triple checked everything. rather wiki is created by everyone, the well informed, the not so well informed. let alone idiots deliberately messing up entries for their own reasons.

alexa is simply the middleman for better or worse.

FYI if you find incorrect information on wikipedia please do correct it for the benefit of all. it's really very simple to do.

[asianrocker]

Yet another example of Google AI System being better than Amazon.

I asked Google Assistant exact same questions and no fake news reply.

I also read his wiki and there is no mention of his death.

Major malfunction on Amazon part if you ask me

[renegade600]

or there is someone by the name of george bush senior who was never president of the US. 

[renegade600]

Yet another example of Google AI System being better than Amazon.

I asked Google Assistant exact same questions and no fake news reply.

I also read his wiki and there is no mention of his death.

Major malfunction on Amazon part if you ask me

I said it before and I will say it again, google had the advantage by owning their own search.  they can arrange things to make it easier for their home to find answers easier. 

[asianrocker]

LOL they corrected it finally before I left the house it still a fail. I checked it now and no more fake news info.

[renegade600]

was wondering about the July 20 date.   that was the date his doctor was murdered.  could be confusion because of some poorly written articles about it.   

[malliekm]

Yet another example of Google AI System being better than Amazon.

I asked Google Assistant exact same questions and no fake news reply.

I also read his wiki and there is no mention of his death.

Major malfunction on Amazon part if you ask me

GA on GH says he's 94. 

[scottrods]

Aside from the erroneous info from Alexa... which I don't call "fake news" simply because you have to summon it with a specific question... News is offered up by a news media source... If you use your AI as a news media source per specific questions, then maybe you could rethink your approach to what you consider news...

I haven't used Alexa or Siri or any other AI for asking questions I wanted serious answers to, except in the event I wanted some store hours of a local store I wanted to go to. I don't ask for critical info like Dr Offices hours or emergency numbers either...

All in all... The term "Fasle news" and the term "Fake news" have been applied to this discussion for hyperbolic escalation of an issue that is simply not an issue if you have your head screwed on straight...

"Alexa... Is the Sky Falling?"