Had an AI voice assistant tell me to water my phone when I asked for plant care tips

I was messing around with that new voice AI update last Tuesday and asked it how often to water my fern, and it deadpanned back with your phone does not need watering, please place it on a wireless charger, so now I'm wondering has anyone else had an AI take a question way too literally?

2 comments

2 Comments

ray1361mo ago

You're giving the AI way too much credit here. These companies train their models on massive datasets and the whole point is supposed to be understanding natural language, not playing literal word games. If I ask my friend "how often do I water my fern" they don't assume I'm talking about my phone. That's basic context that any half-decent system should grasp, especially when they're marketing it as smart enough to order pizza or schedule appointments. So yeah, it is the AI's fault when it can't figure out that "water my fern" probably means the plant sitting on my windowsill and not the Samsung in my pocket.

leodavis1mo ago

Is it really the AI's fault here though? Your question was "how often to water" which it parsed as asking for care instructions on an electronic device. I've had mine tell me to restart my toaster when I asked about burnt toast settings. These things are programmed to take things super literally sometimes because they don't have context unless you give it to them. Next time try saying "care instructions for a fern plant" instead of just "water my fern" and see what happens. The AI is just following its code, not trying to be funny.