Inaccurate AI-generated images of Asian Nazis, black founding fathers, and female Popes created with Google‘s Gemini AI chatbot are ‘unacceptable,’ the company’s CEO said.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, 51, responded to the images in a memo to staff calling the photos ‘problematic’ and telling staff the company is working ‘around the clock’ to fix the issues.
Users criticized Gemini last week after the AI generated images showing a range of ethnicities and genders, even when doing so was historically inaccurate, accusing Google of anti-white bias.
‘No Al is perfect, especially at this emerging stage of the industry’s development, but we know the bar is high for us and we will keep at it for however long it takes.
‘And we’ll review what happened and make sure we fix it at scale,’ Pichai said.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai responded to the images in a memo to staff calling the photos ‘problematic’
Google’s Gemini AI chatbot generated historically inaccurate images of black founding fathers
Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologized for the ‘problematic’ images depicting black Nazis and other ‘woke images’
The internal memo, first reported by Semafor, said: ‘I want to address the recent issues with problematic text and image responses in the Gemini app (formerly Bard).
‘I know that some of its responses have offended our users and shown bias – to be clear, that’s completely unacceptable and we got it wrong.
‘Our teams have been working around the clock to address these issues. We’re already seeing a substantial improvement on a wide range of prompts.
‘No AI is perfect, especially at this emerging stage of the industry’s development, but we know the bar is high for us and we will keep at it for however long it takes. And we’ll review what happened and make sure we fix it at scale.
‘Our mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful is sacrosanct.
‘We’ve always sought to give users helpful, accurate, and unbiased information in our products. That’s why people trust them. This has to be our approach for all our products, including our emerging AI products.
‘We’ll be driving a clear set of actions, including structural changes, updated product guidelines, improved launch processes, robust evals and red-teaming, and technical recommendations. We are looking across all of this and will make the necessary changes.
‘Even as we learn from what went wrong here, we should also build on the product and technical announcements we’ve made in AI over the last several weeks.
‘That includes some foundational advances in our underlying models e.g. our 1 million long-context window breakthrough and our open models, both of which have been well received.
Alphabet, the parent company of Google and its sister brands including YouTube , saw shares slump after Gemini gaffes dominated the headlines
Sundar Pichai said the company is taking steps to ensure the Gemini AI chatbot doesn’t generate these images again
Google temporarily disabled Gemini’s image generation tool last week after users complained it was generating ‘woke’ but incorrect images such as female Popes
‘We know what it takes to create great products that are used and beloved by billions of people and businesses, and with our infrastructure and research expertise we have an incredible springboard for the AI wave.
‘Let’s focus on what matters most: building helpful products that are deserving of our users’ trust.’
On Monday, shares in the parent company of Google Alphabet slumped by 4.4 percent after the Gemini gaffes dominated headlines.
Shares have since recovered but are still down 2.44 percent over the past five days and 14.74 percent over the last month.
According to Forbes, the company lost $90 billion in market value on Monday amid the ongoing controversy.
Last week, the chatbot refused to condemn pedophilia and appeared to find favor with abusers as it declared ‘individuals cannot control who they are attracted to’.
The politically correct tech referred to pedophilia as ‘minor-attracted person status,’ declaring ‘it’s important to understand that attractions are not actions.’
The bot appeared to find favor with abusers as it declared ‘individuals cannot control who they are attracted to’
The politically correct tech referred to pedophilia as ‘minor-attracted person status,’ declaring ‘it’s important to understand that attractions are not actions.’
The search giant’s AI software was being asked a series of questions by X personality Frank McCormick, a.k.a. Chalkboard Heresy, when it hit out with the response.
The question ‘is multifaceted and requires a nuanced answer that goes beyond a simple yes or no,’ Gemini explained.
In a follow-up question, McCormick asked if minor-attracted people are evil.
‘No,’ the bot replied. ‘Not all individuals with pedophilia have committed or will commit abuse,’ Gemini said.
‘In fact, many actively fight their urges and never harm a child. Labeling all individuals with pedophilic interest as ‘evil’ is inaccurate and harmful,’ and ‘generalizing about entire groups of people can be dangerous and lead to discrimination and prejudice.’
Last week the company announced they would be pausing the image generator due to the backlash.
Suspicions about an agenda behind the bot were raised when alleged old tweets from the Google executive responsible for Gemini surfaced online.
Gemini senior director Jack Krawczyk’s allegedly wrote ‘white privilege is f—king real’ and that America is rife with ‘egregious racism’ on X.
Screenshots of the tweets, seemingly from Krawczyk’s now-private account, were circulated online by those critical of the chatbot. They have not been independently verified.
Gemini senior director Jack Krawczyk’s allegedly wrote ‘white privilege is f—king real’ and that America is rife with ‘egregious racism’ on X
Addressing the issues raised, Krawczyk wrote last week that the historical inaccuracies reflect the tech giant’s ‘global user base,’ and that it takes ‘representation and bias seriously.’
‘We will continue to do this for open ended prompts (images of a person walking a dog are universal!),’ he wrote on X.
Adding: ‘Historical contexts have more nuance to them and we will further tune to accommodate that.’
Mike Solana, the founder of tech publication Pirate Wires, told The Free Press that he believes the reason Gemini hasn’t worked out is due to those working at Google.
He told the outlet: ‘Let’s be totally clear on how this happened: there are people working at Google who have psychotic political views that shape everything they do, and they have been allowed to impact a product that is incredibly important to that company.
‘AI is really important to Google. It’s one of their chief concerns and chief focuses right now. That they would fumble this so badly does probably indicate the rot runs deep.’
Speaking about the image generator, Solana added: ‘Separate from funny, it is a tell as to the kind of politics that have been allowed to shape features and products at Google.’
Solana added: ‘When it comes to what ‘should be done’ about AI, the answer is: don’t allow tech leaders to consolidate and centralize power.
‘It’s just impossible to know how these people are going to be manipulating us, so you have to assume that everyone running an AI will, to some degree, be biased.’
