So why is Google giving you this right-wing conspiracy acid-trip? Basically, it's quoting Google's own "featured snippets," results that show up at the top of the page for certain search terms. Unlike the "Knowledge Graph," which shows reliable, well-sourced replies, featured snippets "provide an automatic and algorithmic match to a given search query," Google told Recode.

In other words, the information is first surfaced by a bot from not-necessarily-reliable sources, then read back to you by Google Home (powered by Google Assistant AI). The device focuses on featured snippets because it would be impractical to read a list of search results. By contrast, Amazon's Alexa also tries to answer queries, but according to Recode, it simply says that "I can't find the answer to the question I heard" in response to the same Obama question.

Google definitely knows about the issue, saying "unfortunately, there are instances when we feature a site with inappropriate or misleading content." For now, it's fixing bad results on a case-by-case basis when they're reported.

So, why doesn't it just scrub the featured snippets program until it can be sure the results are reliable? Apparently, people love the easy-to-digest results, and "it's having a very good impact on the search results," a consultant told The Outline last year. In other words, it's too good for Google's bottom line, so it probably won't change things unless it turns into a full-on PR nightmare.