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Comment by k2xl | Hacker News Reader

With my Google Home, I often ask it, "Can my dog eat X" and it'll answer usually from the single answer from Google.

While Google Home usually says the source, "According to WebMD..." or "According to <some blog post>..." it would be horrible if it gave the wrong answer - saying something was safe to eat but it really wasn't.

I hope they take extra precaution with answers related to medicine/safety.

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I personally would hope that you take extra precaution with answers related to medicine/safety. Why would you trust google with something like this? If you ask Google "Can my dog eat X" and blindly trust the answer then it is your fault and not google's if your dog gets sick. Google isn't responsible for your dog, you are!

Why would you trust anything? Not to go to the extreme, but we do things every day where trust is integral, and what we trust is not something we verify independently. Or maybe you are different.

It isn't really a matter of verifying it independently. But we know that Google isn't the expert on dog eating and is only getting their information from third party sources. So we have to know the source to consider its credibility instead of Google's.

Yes we do things every day where trust is integral, but I do verify independently accordingly. This is relative to the importance of the thing off course. That is just common sense.

I accept googles answer when I ask for the weather. If google is wrong on this it mostly has no effect. So it is absolutely appropriate to accept this answer blindly.

I trust my doctor when I have a minor illness, but I did select my doctor carefully and I would get a second opinion if it is something serious.

Putting the same care into both of these things would either be dangerous or obsessive. It does terrify me that people here are suggesting that there are people who put less care into answering medical or safety related questions for themselves than I do reading a weather report for the day. It's crazy.

First off, why are you assuming I'm saying that Google is responsible for my dog? You may want to re-read what I wrote. I never said I'm taking blind trust to what Google says.

However, for the average person, hearing an answer so confidentially from a Google product gives it integrity - whether you agree with it or not.

Think about it - millions of people Google medical questions and they trust "blindly" trust Google to provide them the right results.

Do you honestly not see the dangers of Google giving a single answer response to these types of questions?

You did not explicitly say in your comment that you blindly what google says and you did not explicitly say that google is responsible for your dog.

What you did explicitly say is:

- You often ask "Can my dog eat X".

- It would be horrible if google gave the wrong answer.

- You hope google would take extra precautions with answers to medicine/safety.

The second point implies that you act with this information alone and the third one implies that you would at least partially blame google in that instance.

I am actually terrified that you think there are millions of people blindly trusting google with medical questions. That is a very stupid thing to do. They should go to a doctor or at least read a bit further then that.

I do maybe see the danger of providing a single answer response to medical questions, but I don't jump to assume that they should take extra precautions. Rather I would think that they should stop providing answers to these questions. Or maybe they should do the idiotic american thing of providing disclaimers for common sense things. Like this: Don't blindly trust google. Talk to your doctor/vet/lawyer/expert.

Why should they take extra precautions? Why would they be responsible?

Relevant text:

"Google spokeswoman Susan Cadrecha said the company’s goal isn’t to do the thinking for users but “to help you find relevant information quickly and easily.” She added, “We encourage users to understand the full context by clicking through to the source.”"

I sincerely hope no one is relying on Google to do the thinking for them.

I sincerely hope no one is either - but why should Google even pretend to know the answer to something?

How is the average, non-technical person supposed to assume that Google won't give an accurate answer to a medical question?

Why shouldn't they? I personally like the answers and use them often if I'm trying to find a fact, like when someone famous was born. If someone is going to blindly trust Google without verifying and google doesn't try to answer, they'll probably just trust whatever site is listed first anyways...

I see no harm in Google guessing.

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