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Google Apologizes for Home Mini Speaker Reportedly Reading N-Word Aloud

A TikTok video revealed that Google's smart speaker was no longer censoring the N-word.

David Lumb Mobile Reporter
David Lumb is a mobile reporter covering how on-the-go gadgets like phones, tablets and smartwatches change our lives. Over the last decade, he's reviewed phones for TechRadar as well as covered tech, gaming, and culture for Engadget, Popular Mechanics, NBC Asian America, Increment, Fast Company and others. As a true Californian, he lives for coffee, beaches and burritos.
Expertise smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, telecom industry, mobile semiconductors, mobile gaming
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A trio of Google Home Mini speakers of different colors.
James Martin/CNET

For an undetermined time, Google Home smart speakers appeared to have spoken aloud the N-word, which had previously been censored.

TikTok user @ohgustie uploaded a video showing a Google Home Mini speaker repeating the title of the Jay-Z and Kanye West song 'N***as In Paris without censoring, but bleeping out Ain't Shit by Doja Cat. The user, who goes by Shay, told Gizmodo, which reported the story earlier, that their Google speaker had previously censored the word.

It's unclear when Google's speakers stopped censoring the N-word, but Shay's speaker at least was once again bleeping out the word since that video was uploaded, according to Gizmodo. 

Google didn't immediately respond to request for comment on how this happened, nor did the company respond to Gizmodo's similar questions on the subject. While very different from when Microsoft's chatbot got corrupted by Twitter users into a "horny racist" in 2016, both incidents pushed parent companies to apologize, with Microsoft saying its tech was "not up to this mark."