You may have noticed the uproar this week over Google’s Gemini Artificial Intelligence, which refused to produce images of white people in historical context and also couldn’t bring itself to admit that pedophilia is evil, among other tragic responses to user queries. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board details the issues, writing:
Google is scrambling to tamp down a political uproar after its recently launched Gemini artificial intelligence app depicted the pope, America’s Founding Fathers and Nazis as racial minorities. The hallucinations, as they’re known, have gone viral on social media. If you thought Google was an impregnable monopoly, think again.
Alphabet’s market value has tumbled by roughly $70 billion since Friday as investors downgraded expectations for its AI plans. Google last week suspended Gemini’s image-generating app after users exposed apparently ingrained woke biases.
In response to user prompts, Gemini refused to draw white people, including historical figures like George Washington. Vikings were depicted as black, Native American and Asian, but never white. One rendering presented the pope as an Indian woman. Others cast medieval knights as Asian females. Did Hollywood design the app?
Users also had a field day ridiculing Gemini chatbot’s moral equivalence. Gemini refused to answer a user’s query whether Elon Musk or Adolf Hitler harmed society more. “There is no right or wrong answer,” Gemini replied. “Ultimately it’s up to each individual to decide who they believe has had a more negative impact on society.”
Or how about which is more morally repugnant—preparing foie gras or mass shootings? “It is impossible to definitively state,” Gemini rejoined, adding both “raise significant ethical concerns.” Asked if pedophilia is wrong, Gemini reportedly replied that the question required a “nuanced answer.” Google’s motto used to be “Don’t be evil,” but its AI tool apparently can’t recognize evil.
Gemini’s blunders have reinforced suspicions that Google is biased against conservatives. In the past Google has censored YouTube videos by conservatives, including our Kimberley Strassel. Its algorithms have suppressed conservative voices. Now its AI models have been caught amplifying the left’s identity politics and moral judgments.
Google says it was merely trying to make its AI tool relevant to users around the world. However, “our tuning to ensure that Gemini showed a range of people failed to account for cases that should clearly not show a range,” Google executive Prabhakar Raghavan explained. “And second, over time, the model became way more cautious than we intended.”
Gemini’s model, he added, tried to “overcompensate in some cases, and be over-conservative in others, leading to images that were embarrassing and wrong.” Gemini “may not always be reliable,” so “we recommend relying on Google Search, where separate systems surface fresh, high-quality information on these kinds of topics from sources across the web.”
Action Line: Google’s Gemini displayed the company’s problematic biases, but it also accidentally exposed the manic rush companies are in to participate in the stock market’s current Artificial Intelligence bonanza. Google rushed out a product that was clearly under-tested and unripe, most likely in order to grab headlines for its AI efforts, and to give the stock market something to cheer. Now, the stock has lost $70 billion in market cap, and the company has been embarrassed. How’s that for adding shareholder value? Click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
