Beware! Google Assistant can fire guns now

A recent video of Google Assistant firing a gun has shown that it can do it all, be it good or bad.

Google Assistant just fired a gun, not at a living thing but instead at an apple thankfully. This is not any new feature, but just a hack. Artist Alexander Reben taught Assistant to fire a gun, keeping an apple as a victim.

Reben posted a 30-second video entitled ‘Google Shoots’ where Reben says, “Ok Google, activate gun,” to his Google Home smart speaker and just a second later the buzzer goes off and the gun fires, while Assistant responds, “Sure, turning on the gun.”

Video Courtesy: Alexander Reben

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An off-the-shelf carbon-dioxide-powered pellet gun, a Google Home smart speaker, and a TP-Link smart outlet that sent electricity to a solenoid that actually pulls the trigger, were used to fire the gun, described CNET. “The setup was very easy,” said Reben.

Apparently though nothing serious is happening yet, this ability has raise concerns about the boundaries of what AI should be allowed to do. Reben told Engadget, “The discourse around such an apparatus is more important than its physical presence.” He says that for this project he chose to use Google Assistant, but said it could have been an Amazon Echo ‘or some other input device as well.’

Reben continued, “Part of the message for me includes the unintended consequences of technology and the futility of considering every use case.” Google didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.