The Weirdest Google Bug: Giraffes Praise The iPad

The Weirdest Google Bug: Giraffes Praise The iPad


Software bugs normally annoy you by preventing something from working, but occasionally they’ll do something totally bizarre. A weird issue with Google’s text-to-speech functionality tells you that giraffes are now praising the iPad. Literally.

Explained in an item on the Android bug tracker that was dug up by One Foot Tsunami, if you ask Google Now “What is a giraffe?” it’ll respond by reading you a definition followed up with the bizarre, unwritten addendum “he now praises the iPad.” No really. Go check it out now while you still can.

It’s not just about giraffes though. That’s just a particularly amusing instance. The real issue seems to go back with Google’s text-to-speech having trouble with the sound “-end with” and “-lled with“. If you hop over to Google Translate, for instance, and ask it to speak phrases with the sounds in them, it’ll tack on a notice that “he now praises the iPad”.

While it might seem like something in Google just gained sentience and has a fondness for Apple products, the text seems to be coming from a MacNN article that contains the line. Still, it’s a weird and ironic snippet to pick out. Go have some with it before it gets fixed, which will probably be soon. You don’t come across weirdness like this every day. [One Foot Tsunami]

Picture: Qiun/Shutterstock


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