Perm Deputy Protests to Mizulina Over AI Blocking Victory Day Song

Perm deputy Irek Khaziev has complained to Yekaterina Mizulina about the Yandex AI assistant «Alice». This article details what provoked his outrage and the response from the head of the League of Safe Internet, along with Yandex«s official comment.

Yekaterina Mizulina discussed the unusual complaint on her Telegram channel. She shared the full appeal from the Perm resident, who expressed confusion over why the AI responds to a child«s request by saying, »This song is not for children«s ears.»

«Victory Day is one of Russia»s main songs, uniting generations <…>,« wrote Irek Khaziev. »I am convinced that for it, there are and cannot be any age restrictions! The statement «This song is not for children»s ears« is not just erroneous, but potentially dangerous for the formation of historical memory in the younger generation. The song »Victory Day« is not just music. It is the voice of history.»

Yekaterina Mizulina told her followers that she initially doubted his account. However, verification confirmed that the AI responds differently to a child«s voice compared to an adult»s.

«The song »Victory Day« is indeed restricted for listening if the children»s mode is enabled and the neural network recognizes a young child«s voice. »Alice« says that the song can allegedly be listened to »only together with parents«,» clarified the head of the League of Safe Internet.

Why is the child unable to play the song, and what can be done to allow them to hear it? The Yandex press service explained to 59.RU that the «Home with Alice» application offers several settings for content restrictions based on voice recognition:

• «Children»s« mode (»Alice« plays any content except 18+);

• »For Toddlers« mode (»Alice« tries to play content specifically created for young children).

«In adult and children»s modes, the song «Victory Day» is played,« clarified the press service. »Most likely, the «For Toddlers» mode was enabled on the device: in this mode, «Yandex Station» reproduces only content specifically created for children. Even the youngest listeners of smart speakers can understand it regardless of age: these are lullabies, children«s songs (for example, »And I Dream« from the cartoon »Three Cats« or »Antoshka«) and simple fairy tales. Parents can change the content filtering settings at any time in the »Home with Alice« app. Our support team has already contacted the author of the post to clarify all details.»

Earlier we reported how Yekaterina Mizulina sent textbooks to a Perm region school, which a student had complained were lacking.