{"id":23430,"date":"2020-03-13T22:39:37","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T14:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/voice-assistants-like-alexa-and-siri-dont-know-space-facts-nasa-could-fix-that\/"},"modified":"2020-03-13T22:39:37","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T14:39:37","slug":"voice-assistants-like-alexa-and-siri-dont-know-space-facts-nasa-could-fix-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/voice-assistants-like-alexa-and-siri-dont-know-space-facts-nasa-could-fix-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Voice assistants like Alexa and Siri don\u2019t know space facts, NASA could fix that"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"img-border featured-image wp-block-image--obfuscated\">\n<p>\t<img width=\"100%\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png?w=1502\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png?w=320&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png?w=640&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png?w=1024&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png?w=1500&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-attachment-id=\"777\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/jsc2020e000607-1\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png\" data-orig-size=\"3000,1997\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"jsc2020e000607-1\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png?w=1024\"><br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kyle Wiggers at VentureBeat published a story today examining the questionable quality of Amazon\u2019s Alexa Answers service. The piece highlights several answers to questions that were false or misleading, including this:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The third question \u2014 \u201cWho was the first black man on the moon?\u201d \u2014 contains a false premise. No African American astronaut has walked on the moon to date, although one user offers \u201cBernard Anthony Harris Jr.\u201d as a potential answer. This is incorrect \u2014 while Harris became the first African American to perform a spacewalk in February 1995, he never stepped foot on the moon. Interestingly, Alexa rarely surfaces this answer when asked the question, but instead erroneously responds with the answer \u201cNeil Armstrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I tried this same question with Siri on my Mac. Siri doesn\u2019t offer a blatantly wrong answer like the Alexa Answers response, but it does punt to a list of web results with a misleading first entry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first Wikipedia result Siri surfaces tells you about Bernard Harris, the first African-American to complete a spacewalk, but not Guion Bluford who was the first African-American in space.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-775\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A properly configured response would acknowledge that NASA and other space agencies haven\u2019t given black astronauts the opportunity to walk on the Moon yet.<\/p>\n<p>\t<span class=\"outbrain-ad-label\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script type=\"text\/plain\">\n\t\t\twindow.adSlotsConfig = window.adSlotsConfig || [];<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tadSlotsConfig.push( {\n\t\t\t\tslotID: '\/1049447\/Outbrain',\n\t\t\t\tslotName: 'div-gpt-ad-outbrain-ad-775',\n\t\t\t\tsizes: [300, 250],\n\t\t\t\tslotPosition: 'mid_article'\n\t\t\t} );\n\t\t<\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This gave me an idea. Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft should partner with NASA to populate as many space questions with factual responses \u2014 even when the answer isn\u2019t what we want. <\/p>\n<figure data-carousel-extra=\"{&quot;blog_id&quot;:10,&quot;permalink&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/2020\/03\/12\/voice-assistants-like-alexa-and-siri-dont-know-space-facts-nasa-could-fix-that\/&quot;}\" class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\">\n<li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"Open image in full-screen.\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"764\" height=\"1254\" data-attachment-id=\"778\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/screen-shot-2020-03-12-at-10-19-38-am\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png\" data-orig-size=\"764,1254\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"screen-shot-2020-03-12-at-10.19.38-am\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png?w=624\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.files.wordpress.com\/2020\/03\/screen-shot-2020-03-12-at-10.19.38-am.png?w=624\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"778\" data-link=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/screen-shot-2020-03-12-at-10-19-38-am\/\" class=\"wp-image-778\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/03\/screen-shot-2020-03-12-at-10.19.38-am.png 764w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/03\/screen-shot-2020-03-12-at-10.19.38-am.png?resize=183,300 183w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/03\/screen-shot-2020-03-12-at-10.19.38-am.png?resize=624,1024 624w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/03\/screen-shot-2020-03-12-at-10.19.38-am.png?resize=213,350 213w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/03\/screen-shot-2020-03-12-at-10.19.38-am.png?resize=140,230 140w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/03\/screen-shot-2020-03-12-at-10.19.38-am.png?resize=609,1000 609w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/03\/screen-shot-2020-03-12-at-10.19.38-am.png?resize=150,246 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 764px) 100vw, 764px\"><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"Open image in full-screen.\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"304\" height=\"600\" data-attachment-id=\"779\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/screenshot_20200308-210802-e1583733771424\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png\" data-orig-size=\"304,600\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"screenshot_20200308-210802-e1583733771424\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png?w=304\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.files.wordpress.com\/2020\/03\/screenshot_20200308-210802-e1583733771424.png?w=304\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"779\" data-link=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/screenshot_20200308-210802-e1583733771424\/\" class=\"wp-image-779\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/03\/screenshot_20200308-210802-e1583733771424.png 304w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/03\/screenshot_20200308-210802-e1583733771424.png?resize=152,300 152w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/03\/screenshot_20200308-210802-e1583733771424.png?resize=177,350 177w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/03\/screenshot_20200308-210802-e1583733771424.png?resize=140,276 140w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/03\/screenshot_20200308-210802-e1583733771424.png?resize=150,296 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\"><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kids are growing up learning to control computers by voice first, and there\u2019s no reason a voice assistant shouldn\u2019t be a trusted source for answering all the curiosities of the mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NASA is a space agency with a wealth of important space knowledge. The outreach effort would be a great STEM project. Tech companies could certainly invest their own time in training their voice assistants to learn important space facts, but NASA is better positioned to know what the top 100 space questions people ask are.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This incident also made me think about NASA\u2019s Artemis program and which astronauts will walk on the moon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frankly, I hope NASA\u2019s Artemis III mission to the moon doesn\u2019t include a white man. NASA\u2019s tagline \u201cfirst woman and next man\u201d certainly doesn\u2019t rule out yet another white male astronaut being selected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The good news is the 2020 NASA class of astronauts is somewhat diverse, and NASA is also recruiting new astronauts for the first time in four years now through March 31. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I hope technology companies hear the call for a higher standard with diversity and inclusion questions on STEM subjects, and NASA selects a qualified crew that can inspire kids from all backgrounds with the Artemis III mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kyle Wiggers at VentureBeat published a story today examining the questionable quality of Amazon\u2019s Alexa Answers service. The piece highlights several answers to questions that were false or misleading, including this: The third question \u2014 \u201cWho was the first black man on the moon?\u201d \u2014 contains a false premise. No African American astronaut has walked [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}