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WATCH: Google Home can't tell you who Jesus is, but will identify Muhammad

by Tola Mbakwe

Several videos are circulating online that show that Google Home can't tell you who Jesus is, but can tell you who other religious figures are such as Muhammad and Buddha.

To verify this, Premier News team put it to the test, and it gave the same results.

Bex Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University, told Premier she was shocked when she first heard it.

"Google is an American company and America is, at least nominally, a very Christian company, so you would think it would manage to get that into the system," she said.

"It might be one of those things that everyone makes a fuss about it today and then Google may sort it out and it may all work next week."

Lewis, author of "Raising Children in a Digital Age: Enjoying the Best, Avoiding the Worst", also said the issue is probably a technical oversight.

She explained: "I always think when we look at technology; it's built by human beings. The algorithms are developed by human beings with computer aide.

"It's quite interesting to see what that process might be that means that certain things get excluded or included."

Lewis explained one possible reason for the gaffe may have to do with which website comes up first when someone searches 'Jesus' on Google.

She said a Wikipedia page for Muhammed comes up first, which is what Google Home uses to explain who Muhammed is.
 
However, for "Jesus Christ or Christianity... there's three other pages that come first and [maybe] there's something written into the code that they don't want to give those particular pages," she added.

Lewis told Premier Christians should not be offended by this, and it's the perfect chance to see the need for more Christians in the tech industry.

She said: "I'm an active member of the Church and Media Network which looks at getting the media to understand Christianity more, and Christians feeling confident to go and work in secular or Christian specialist media, so we've got more people who understand that worldview and that goes into the system."

Premier contacted Google and was told they were "looking into it" and will release a statement on this issue.

Listen to Bex Lewis speaking with Premier's Alex Williams here:

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