Google was forced to pause its new AI chatbot Gemini on Thursday after hundreds of historically inaccurate visuals were shared on social media, including “diverse” images such as black Vikings, female popes and Native Americans among the Founding Fathers.
“We’re already working to address recent issues with Gemini’s image generation feature,” Google said in a statement posted on X. “While we do this, we’re going to pause the image generation of people and will re-release an improved version soon.”
X owner Elon Musk blasted the company, blaming the “woke mind virus” for killing Western Civilization.
“The woke mind virus is killing Western Civilization. Google does the same thing with their search results. Facebook & Instagram too. And Wikipedia.”
The woke mind virus is killing Western Civilization.
Google does the same thing with their search results. Facebook & Instagram too.
And Wikipedia. https://t.co/2RQ6v35m7P
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2024
From The New York Post:
Examples included an AI image of a black man who appeared to represent George Washington, complete with a white powdered wig and Continental Army uniform, and a Southeast Asian woman dressed in papal attire even though all 266 popes throughout history have been white men.
In another shocking example uncovered by the Verge, Gemini even generated “diverse” representations of Nazi-era German soldiers, including an Asian woman and a black man decked out in 1943 military garb.
Since Google has not published the parameters that govern the Gemini chatbot’s behavior, it is difficult to get a clear explanation of why the software was inventing diverse versions of historical figures and events.
William A. Jacobson, a Cornell University Law professor and founder of the Equal Protection Project, a watchdog group told The Post: “In the name of anti-bias, actual bias is being built into the systems.”
“This is a concern not just for search results, but real-world applications where ‘bias free’ algorithm testing actually is building bias into the system by targeting end results that amount to quotas.”
One X user appears to have discovered what’s happening behind the scenes when Gemini prepares its results.
https://twitter.com/BasedTorba/status/1760486551627182337?s=20
