History Main / VirtualAssistantBlunder

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* In ''Space Case'' by [[Literature/SpySchool Stuart Gibbs]], the top scientist of Moon Base Alpha is found dead and everyone is a suspect. Dash Gibson, the protagonist, says it could have easily been the base's AI, since they misunderstand everything. He relates a rumor that World War III was almost started when an AI missile system back on Earth misheard "I hate syrup" as "annihilate Europe."

* Similarly, [[OopNorth Northern English]] comedian Paddy [=McGuiness=] discovers that Alexa cannot deal with strong English regional accents either. His Alexa is eventually binned as he turns the kettle on for a relaxing [[SpotOfTea brew]].

[[DescribeTopicHere Trope.Ai, describe topic here!]]

* ''Series/BirdsOfAFeather'': The Ptolemy smart device (a BrandX version of the Amazon Alexa smart device) that Sharon purchases in "The House For The Rising Sons" keeps mishearing ''everything'' that she says as the "Billericay Tennis Club". When Sharon then asks what is the best place to play tennis in Billericay, it mishears it as a command to play "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day".

With voice-activated smart phones and virtual assistants becoming more common in the real world, this is very much TruthInTelevision. SisterTrope of AutoIncorrect, where an autocorrect or speech-to-text program supplies the wrong word.

* ''Series/{{Burnistoun}}'': One sketch involves two men in an elevator which operates by voice recognition. It can't understand their Scottish accents and asks them to repeat their desired floor over and over, while the guys try talking in different accents and ultimately resort to screaming abuse into the microphone.

With voice-activated smart phones and virtual assistants becoming more common in the real world, this is very much TruthInTelevision.

Any time a character tries to get help from a virtual assistant or other voice activated device, the computer will always misunderstand the command and HilarityEnsues. This could be due to the character having a difficult to understand accent, a SpeechImpediment, or [[ICantHearYou bad acoustics]]. Alternatively, the virtual assistant could just not be very advanced. Often times, the assistant will hear the words correctly, but will [[ComicallyMissingThePoint misunderstand the meaning]] or else they will take the command [[LiteralMinded too literally]]. Sometimes it will mistake something [[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder not meant as a command as a command]]. One common outcome is for the virtual assistant to play an annoying or inappropriate song with lyrics that are similar to the requested command. Alternately, it could mistake an intended command for a message and generate a text-to-speech transcription, in a variation of ReadingTheStageDirectionsOutLoud.

Any time a character tries to get help from a virtual assistant or other voice activated device, the computer will always misunderstand the command and HilarityEnsues. This could be due to the character having a difficult to understand accent, a SpeechImpediment, or [[ICantHearYou bad acoustics]]. Alternatively, the virtual assistant could just not be very advanced. Often times, the assistant will hear the words correctly, but will [[ComicallyMissingThePoint misunderstand the meaning]] or else they will take the command [[LiteralMinded too literally]]. Sometimes it will mistake something [[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder not meant as a command as a command]]. One common outcome is for the virtual assistant to play an annoying or inappropriate song with lyrics that are similar to the requested command.

* ''Film/{{Us}}'': When Kitty is attacked by the Tethered, she calls for her digital assistant, "Ophelia", to call the police. The device plays "Fuck tha Police" by Music/{{NWA}}

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': In "The Beta Test Initiation", Barry disparrages the voice recognition on the new iPhone, not realizing it is because of his ElmuhFuddSyndwome.

* In the ''WebVideo/{{React}}'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw95AZzPpsU episode]] about the google glass one of the elders had to record a video. Instead it showed him videos of "elastic dick video".

-->'''Candace:''' Neverminded, this is ''exactly'' like the one we have at home.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'': When Benny tries to hack into Lord Business' lair's computer system and disable the shields, the computer replies that there are no movies with that title in their area.

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[[folder: Comedy]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

-->'''Drac:''' I'm looking for a date.
-->'''Phone:''' The date is Friday, July 13th.
-->'''Drac:''' No no no. I want to meet someone.
-->'''Phone:''' Understood, you want to eat dim sum!
-->'''Drac:''' Are you kidding me right now?

--> '''Candace:''' Neverminded, this is ''exactly'' like the one we have at home.
* ''WesternAnimation/Rio2'': Blu gets a [=GPS=] to help with the family's trip to the Amazon. It doesn't help as much as he hopes, mostly due to misinterpreting his requests.
-->'''Blu:''' Come on, lady. Don't let me down.
-->'''[=GPS=]:''' Calculating route to "Funky Town".

* In ''Film/AntMan'', as Ant-Man and Darren Cross (inside of the Yellowjacket armor) wage a FreeFallFight inside of a briefcase, the two of them bump with Cross' iPhone and Yellowjacket hollers out "I'm going to disintegrate you!", which Siri takes as a request to play Music/TheCure's ''Music/{{Disintegration}}''.
* In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', Nick Fury is under attack and his car's AI is reporting multiple systems damaged. In frustration, Fury sarcastically asks what's ''not'' broken -- and [[SarcasmBlind is told that the air conditioning is fully functional]].

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live-Action Television]]
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': In "The Beta Test Initiation", Barry disparrages the voice recognition on the new iPhone, not realizing is because of his ElmuhFuddSyndwome.
-->'''Barry Kripke:''' You got Siwi, huh? Voice wecognition on that thing is tewwible. Wook. Siwi, can you wecomend a westauwant?
-->'''Siri:''' I'm sorry, Bawwy. I don't understand "wecomend a westauwant."
-->'''Barry Kripke:''' Wisten to me. Not "westauwant," ''westauwant''!
-->'''Siri:''' I don't know what you mean by "not westauwant, westauwant."
-->'''Barry Kripke:''' See? Total cwap. You suck, Siwi.

[[folder: Theatre]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In the Website/CollegeHumor "If Google Was a Guy" skits, Website/{{Google}} is personified as a middle aged office worker that people come to in order to ask questions. At one point a woman tries to ask a question through the Apple interface Siri, who repeatedly messes up the question. Much later in the skit, [[BrickJoke Siri is still misinterpreting the question]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJD1Iwy5lUY The skit in question.]]
--> '''Siri User:''' How big is the Serengeti?
--> '''Siri:''' No problem. *turns to Google Guy* Show me pictures of spaghetti.
--> '''Google Guy:''' No, that's not what she asked for!
* In the WebVideo/{{React}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw95AZzPpsU episode]] about the google glass one of the elders had to record a video. Instead it showed him videos of "elastic dick video".

* ''[[WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers Bob's Burgers]]'': In "O.T.: The Outside Toilet", Gene discovers a high-tech toilet with voice recognition capabilities. Its AI is pretty advanced, but it still makes these blunders occasionally, such as playing the band Music/{{Wings}} when Gene asks if it can deploy wings and fly.
-->'''Gene:''' I'm gonna bet my sisters $1,000 that there isn't a talking toilet in the woods. That's what I call easy money.
-->'''Toilet:''' Playing artist Eddie Money.
-->''[rock music playing]''
-->'''Gene:''' No, no, cancel! Undo!
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}:'' In "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E4LuckOfTheFryish The Luck of the Fryrish]]," Professor Farnsworth's computer overhears the cast's conversation and helpfully [[CoincidentalBroadcast pulls up a plot-relevant documentary]], but also does two irrelevant actions:

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': In "Candace Disconnected", Phineas and Ferb build Candace an advanced cell phone with a voice-activated transportation app - all she has to do is say "Go to [location]" and the phone will automatically send her to that location. This backfires when she's chatting on the phone with Stacy about an Easter Island documentary and says, "Why would you ever want to ''go to Easter Island''?" The app picks up the last four words as a command and transports Candace to Easter Island.

-->'''Voice:''' For automated stock prices, please state the company name.
-->'''Homer:''' [=AniMotion=].
-->'''Voice:''' [=AniMotion=]... Up one and one half.
-->'''Homer:''' ''Yahoo!''
-->'''Voice:''' Yahoo... Up six and a quarter.
-->'''Homer:''' Huh? What is this crap?
-->'''Voice:''' [[BitingTheHandHumor Fox Broadcasting... Down eight.]]
-->'''Homer:''' ''[[TakeThat (smiles contently)]]''
[[/folder]]

* Similarly, [[OopNorth Northern English]] comedian Paddy [=McGuiness=] discovers that Alexa cannot deal with strong English regional accents either. His Alexa is eventually binned as he turns the kettle on for a relaxing [[SpotOftTea brew]].

Another variant is for a character to call an automated hotline that requires vocal responses, [[ForInconveniencePressOne which causes it's own set of problems]].

* [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica South African]] comic Creator/TrevorNoah does a routine that highlights how VA's like Siri and Alexa are only really geared up to understand instructions in Standard English. Trevor illustrates this by taking on the persona of a Boer whose first language is not English but Afrikaans. Alexa is eventually thrown out of a window by the exasperated [[AmoralAfrikaner Afrikaaner]].
* Similarly, [[OopNorth Northern English]] comedian Paddy McGuiness discovers Alexa cannot deal with strong English regional accents either. His Alexa is eventually binned as he turns the kettle on for a relaxing [[SpotOftTea brew]].

* ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania3SummerVacation'': Drac hears that he can get a date over the internet and attempts to ask his smart phone to set him up on a date, but the phone keeps misunderstanding his instructions.
--> Drac: I'm looking for a date.
--> Phone: The date is Friday, July 13th.
--> Drac: No no no. I want to meet someone.
--> Phone: Understood, you want to eat dim sum!
--> Drac: Are you kidding me right now?

* ''Film/LAStory''. Harris K. Telemacher is trying to program his voice operated answering machine to make calls. When he says "Dial Mom", it calls Domino's Pizza.

* ''Film/{{Us}}'': When Kitty is attacked by the Tethered, she calls for her digital assistant, "Ophelia", to call the police. The device plays "Fuck Tha Police" by [[Music/{{NWA}} N.W.A.]]

--> Where's the buttons?
--> Oh no, they've installed voice-recognition technology in this lift. They have nae buttons.
--> Voice recognition technology? In a lift? In [b]Scotland[/b]? Ye ever tried voice recognition technology?
--> *shrugs* No.
--> They don't do Scottish accents.

* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' season 14, episodes 6/7, the AI Cherry mishears the crew's words as a RunningGag. [[spoiler: She ends up mishearing "shelf construction" as "self destruction" and blowing them all up.]]

--> '''Gene:''' I'm gonna bet my sisters $1,000 that there isn't a talking toilet in the woods. That's what I call easy money.
--> '''Toilet:''' Playing artist Eddie Money.
--> ''[rock music playing]''
--> '''Gene:''' No, no, cancel! Undo!

-->'''Professor Farnsworth:''' Shut up, friends. My Internet browser heard us saying the word "Fry" and it found a movie about Philip J. Fry for us. It also opened my calendar to Friday and ordered me some French fries.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' episode "Can't Hardly Wait", Lori is trying to be a waitress, so [[ChildProdigy Lisa]] invents some voice-activated robot arms. Only, they keep mishearing Lori: they hear "bill" as "pepper mill", "stop" as "chopped", and "not what I meant" as "condiments".
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': In "Candace Disconnected," Phineas and Ferb build Candace an advanced cell phone with a voice-activated transportation app - all she has to do is say "Go to [location]" and the phone will automatically send her to that location. This backfires when she's chatting on the phone with Stacy about an Easter Island documentary and says, "Why would you ever want to ''go to Easter Island''?" The app picks up the last four words as a command and transports Candace to Easter Island.