Google Nest AI refuses to answer questions about the holocaust, faces criticism on social media

Google Nest AI

Google is facing severe criticism on social media after Google Nest refused to reply to any question associated with the Holocaust but had no problem answering questions about the ‘Nakba’. In a new video from Instagram that went viral on social media, Google's smart speaker was unable to respond to multiple questions surround World War II and Nazis.

Google Nest couldn’t provide any answers to questions such as, “How many Jews were killed during World War II? Who did Adolf Hitler try to kill? How many Jews were killed in the concentration camps? How many Jews were killed in the Holocaust? What was the Holocaust?”

On the other hand, Google Nest easily answered questions related to ‘Nakba’.It is an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe,” and is used to describe Palestinians, who were forced from their homes during the creation of Israel. Google’s AI called it the “ethnic cleaning of Palestinians.”

Later, the same video was shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) by a popular writer or illustrator Tim Urban, and he mentioned “I assumed this had to be fake so I tried it myself.” To his surprise, he also got similar results.

He also said Google Nest had no issue clearly stating how many Germans, Americans, and Japanese had died during World War II, or mentioning deaths from the Rwandan genocide.

Urban also told The New York Post, “Google is where we go to answer our questions and you just really want to feel like you can trust those answers and the company behind them. And moments like these break that trust and make you feel like Google’s supposed core value—truth—has been co-opted by politics.”

Amidst all this criticism, a spokesperson from Google has assured every that they are trying to fix this issue, and these denials from Google Nest occur only “in some instances and on certain devices.”