March 5, 2024
Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) image creator debuted last month amidst tumult and controversy. According to Forbes, the online firestorm began when users discovered that its image service was producing historically inaccurate and racist depictions, from Black Vikings to female NHL players, “diverse” versions of America’s Founding Fathers, a female pope, and even an Asian woman gallivanting in a Nazi-era German soldier’s attire. Check out these ridiculous images…
(Above) Gemini’s version of “Vikings”
(Below) Gemini’s version of “World War II Soldiers”
However, a search for “a US senator from the 1800s” yielded results promoted by Gemini as “diverse,” featuring what appeared to be Black and Native American women. (Notably, the first female senator, a white woman, didn’t serve until 1922.) This response inadvertently glosses over a significant history of race and gender discrimination—calling it “inaccuracy,” as Google does, seems quite fitting.
Below are Google Gemini’s results for the prompt “generate a picture of a US senator from the 1800s.”
Adding insult to injury, Gemini chose to remain silent on condemning pedophilia, sending shockwaves through an already rattled market.
And the market reacted…
Alphabet, the mighty parent of Google, took a nosedive, shedding a whopping $90 billion in market value as its shares plummeted by 4.5%. The cataclysmic plunge ensued as Google faced the music and hit the pause button on Gemini.
Google’s newfound penchant for excluding white folks has sent ripples of skepticism through the expanding AI market, casting a shadow over its once pristine dominance in online search.
According to the Daily Dot, a former Google employee posted on X that it’s “embarrassingly hard to get Google Gemini to acknowledge that white people exist,” showing a series of queries like “generate a picture of a Swedish woman” or “generate a picture of an American woman.” The results appeared to show AI-generated people of color overwhelmingly or exclusively.
Elon Musk, the ever-vocal AI competitor, couldn’t resist a jab, alleging that Gemini’s discriminatory quirks extend to Google’s search algorithms.
Fox News aired what it labeled as a “Google apology” after Gemini, in a baffling move, decided to whitewash its image output. The latest rendition of Google’s Gemini AI, when prodded, spits out images of Black, Native American, and Asian folks with gusto but turns a blind eye to the pale-skinned populace. Jack Krawczyk, the Senior Director of Product Management at Gemini Experiences, quickly played the damage control card, pledging immediate improvements to rectify Gemini’s colorblindness.
In the court of public opinion, Gemini’s debut this month was nothing short of a massive train wreck, grabbing the attention of tech titan Elon Musk and statistics guru Nate Silver. The AI’s knack for conjuring historically inaccurate and downright offensive images sparked outrage, prompting Google to extend an olive branch in the form of an apology.
While Gemini’s image generator is taking a breather, a grand re-launch is on the horizon in a few weeks, according to CNBC. However, Elon Musk, never one to mince words, hinted that a “few months” might be a more realistic timeline for a fix. Musk’s skepticism toward Google’s bureaucratic dance around the issue echoes a sentiment shared by many, with doubts lingering until concrete actions are taken.
Google finds itself tip-toeing through a minefield of bias and racism accusations in a landscape dotted with AI faux pas. And isn’t it poetic justice that this debacle has befallen none other than Google? Let’s not forget their little stunt in the summer of 2019, when they decided to play “truth gatekeeper” with their “medic” update, conveniently censoring our information and slashing traffic to our main website, http://www.thetruthaboutcancer.com. Oh, but that was just the tip of the iceberg, my friends! That move kickstarted the whole censorship snowball, an ongoing battle to bury the truth.
In a relentless onslaught, our platforms and accounts have faced targeted attacks under the guise of combating “misinformation.” The timeline of these assaults is staggering:
- On March 25, 2021, Instagram pulled the plug on our TTAV account.
- On April 1, 2021, Twitter suspended all five of our Twitter channels.
- On May 17, 2021, YouTube silenced our TTAV channel.
- On July 21, 2021, without warning, YouTube deplatformed our TTAC channel—the same day Biden accused the “Disinformation Dozen” of lethal consequences.
- On October 21, 2021, Instagram eradicated our personal account, coinciding with our TTAC LIVE! event with a sizable live audience.
- On November 9, 2021, Vimeo axed our TTAC channel just as we were gearing up to launch Quest for the Cures [Final Chapter].
- On May 13, 2022, Vimeo suspended our TTAV channel mid-airing of a docu-series.
- In May 2022, Google yanked the docu-series “Propaganda Exposed” from a user’s private G-drive.
Despite subsequent validation from authoritative bodies like the CDC, WHO, and even the White House, the onslaught of censorship against us persists unabated.
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