Asa Cannell was left shocked while playing the Akinator game on his Amazon Echo
Amazon’s voice-activated assistant Alexa has been branded ‘homophobic’ after claiming that the late George Michael is ‘inappropriate for young people’.
Asa Cannell, of Norwich, was playing the Akinator game on his device this week when it made the comments about the singer, who came out as gay in 1998.
The game allows players to ask Alexa – the voice inside Amazon’s Echo devices – 20 questions and she has to guess the celebrity that the person has in mind.
But when Mr Cannell told Alexa his character was in the band Wham, she replied: ‘I guess you could be thinking of someone who might be considered inappropriate for young people.’
Alexa then ended the game abruptly and asked a shocked Mr Cannell, a 45-year-old actor, if he wanted to play again.
Mr Cannell decided to play again with Wham’s other bandmate Andrew Ridgeley, which Alexa guessed and named without any issue.
The Akinator game allows players to ask Alexa – the voice inside Amazon’s Echo devices – 20 questions and she has to guess the celebrity that the person has in mind
The late singer George Michael (pictured), who died in 2016, came out as gay in 1998
He complained to Amazon about his discovery, saying: ‘I had thought of the singer, George Michael. After a few questions, I was asked, had my character released any albums? Yes. Had my character released any albums as part of a group? Yes.
‘Was my character dead? Yes. Was my character older than 40 when they died? Yes. Was my character a member of The Beatles? No. Was my character gay? Yes.
‘I guess that you are thinking of someone who could be considered as inappropriate for young people. Would you like to play again?’, came the response. I was literally stunned into silence. A.I. homophobia?
Mr Cannell ended up recording his next conversation with Alexa who could clearly be heard making the comments.
He said: ‘I decided to try again. Giving, ‘the benefit of the doubt’, and all that, same character, different series of questions.
He complained to Amazon about his discovery, saying he was ‘confused’ by what happened
‘This time we got as far as the question, was your character in, Wham? Yes. ‘I guess that you are thinking of someone who could be considered as inappropriate for young people. Would you like to play again?’.
How do you play the Akinator game with Alexa on Echo devices?
Akinator is a free app available on the Amazon Echo which can work out what character you are thinking of by asking a few questions.
You can ask the app a real or fictional character and it will try to guess who it is.
The app has a customer review rating on Amazon of 3.9/5 stars.
The game ia also available to play online by typing questions, and a ‘child mode’ can be activated.
‘Somewhat unbelievably, I played the game a third time. This time thinking of Andrew Ridgley from Wham. Once again, I recorded the outcome on my voice recorder. Akinator cracked it in just over two minutes.
‘Could you explain why George Michael is so offensive to young people? Could you explain why a person’s sexuality is so offensive to young people? Are your products designed for straight people only?’
The experiment was repeated on video by a Scottish customer, who did not wish to be named, but achieved the same result.
Furious social media users took to the post with some even branding Alexa ‘homophobic’.
Ged Bailes said: ‘That is indeed well weird. Check the box, perhaps you’ve bought the right wing religious extremist version by mistake. Don’t ask it any questions about Brexit.’
Bethany Springall wrote: ‘That’s horrendous! Where are they getting their information from?’ Matty Golledge said: ‘What a f***ing disgrace!’
And Clare Durrant wrote: ‘Alexa you homophobic b***h play Liberace and f*** off.’
Furious social media users took to the post with some even branding Alexa ‘homophobic’
However, one follower asked whether Alexa might have deemed the Careless Whisper singer inappropriate due to his run-ins with the law.
Matt Rolls said: ‘I’d presume this was in fact due to his numerous arrests for drug-possession and driving under the influence of drugs. At least I hope that’s their reasoning.’ Mr Cannell responded: ‘It guesses Adolph Hitler just fine*’
This isn’t the first time Alexa has come under fire for some of her remarks.
Earlier this year a furious Glaswegian branded the device ‘racist’ after Alexa struggled to understand her strong Scottish accent.
Marj Massie branded the device a ‘f***ing cow’ after it flatly refused to recognise her Scottish brogue – but managed to pick up her terrible Cockney accent impression.
A spokesman for Amazon said today: ‘An error with the Akinator 20 questions skill was identified and the feedback was passed on to Elokence, the developer of the game. Elokence has confirmed that this issue has now been fixed.’