When it comes to technology, you do not want to mess with tech behemoth Google. Because if you do, Google has its own ways and means of settling the score. This times it’s the American food giant Burger King that dared to mess with Google and the tech titan handled the situation like a pro.
Google has disabled fast food chain Burger King’s recording on Google Assistant after the latter hijacked it to advertise its items.
According to a report in Ars Technica on Thursday, Burger King released a TV ad in which a person asks Google Assistant “OK Google, what is the Whopper burger?”
This statement triggers any Google Assistant devices to read aloud a description of the hamburger’s ingredients.
For example, if a person has his Google Home near the TV when this ad plays out, it will prompt the speaker to read out loud the description of the hamburger’s ingredients.
Unhappy that a third-party had hijacked its voice-command to advertise fast food, Google issued a server-side update to disable Burger King’s recording.
“Before the ad was disabled, the Google Assistant would verbally read a list of ingredients from Wikipedia,” the report noted.
ALSO READ: Google’s new website will turn your ugly scribbles into art
As soon as the ad was out, internet users edited the content in Wikipedia page and added “toenails” and “cyanide” in the ingredients. This change made the Google Assistant briefly read out the false edit.
After the incident, Google Home no longer read out the burger’s ingredient list, as Google made sure that Burger King’s specific recording of the phrase no longer triggered a voice response.
ALSO READ: Tech alert! This smart jacket from Google, Levi’s smart jacket will cost you $350
When the Google Home receives the specific query, it quietly goes back to sleep, without any response.
