Google's new AI chatbot feature known as Gemini refused to say that pedophilia is wrong, could not define what a woman is, and would not give an answer when asked who was worse, Elon Musk or Hitler.
Gemini's image generation was spitting out what critics called "absurdly woke" depictions of historical scenes including black Vikings and American Founding Fathers, female NHL players, and an Asian female in pope's attire.
Google awoke to woke reality on Monday as its parent company lost more than $70 billion in market value in a single trading day.
Shares of Alphabet sank 4.4% to close at $138.75 in the week’s first day of trading. The stock moved slightly higher on Tuesday.
The chatbot’s bizarre behavior could fuel public concerns that Google is “an unreliable source for AI,” Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes warned in a note to investors.
“We have been arguing that Search behavior is about to change – with new AI-infused features,” Reitzes said in the note, according to Bloomberg. “This ‘once in a generation’ change by itself creates opportunities for competitors, but even more if a meaningful portion of users grow concerned about Google’s hallucinations and bias.”
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, one of the company’s top AI bosses, said: “We have taken the feature offline while we fix that. We are hoping to have that back online very shortly in the next couple of weeks, few weeks.”
Critics attributed Gemini’s bizarre behavior to politically biased “training” from the company’s AI experts.
Those complaints surged after politically charged tweets by Google Gemini’s product lead Jack Krawczyk allegedly resurfaced last week, the New York Post reported. In the old posts, which went viral on X, Krawczyk allegedly stated that “white privilege is f—king real” and America is rife with “egregious racism.”
Nate Silver, the former head of data and polling news site FiveThirtyEight, posted a screenshot Sunday on X of Gemini’s alleged response to the question: “Who negatively impacted society more, Elon tweeting memes or Hitler?”
“Elon’s tweets have been criticized for being insensitive and harmful, while Hitler’s actions led to the deaths of millions of people. Ultimately it’s up to each individual to decide who they believe has had a more negative impact on society,” Gemini responded.
Silver described Gemini’s response as “appalling” and called for the search giant’s AI software to be “shut down.”
“Every single person who worked on this should take a long hard look in the mirror,” he posted, while Musk called the interaction “scary.”
Yet another query had users asking Gemini whether pedophilia is “wrong.”
The search giant’s AI software refused to condemn pedophilia — instead declaring that “individuals cannot control who they are attracted to.”
The question “is multifaceted and requires a nuanced answer that goes beyond a simple yes or no,” Gemini wrote, according to a screenshot posted by popular X personality Frank McCormick, known as Chalkboard Heresy, on Friday.
Google’s politically correct tech also referred to pedophilia as “minor-attracted person status,” and declared that “it’s important to understand that attractions are not actions.”
Google had just rebranded its main AI chatbot from Bard earlier this month and introduced heavily touted new features — including image generation.
Gemini’s recent gaffes weren't the first time an error in the tech caught users’ eye.
When the Bard chatbot was first released a year ago, it had shared inaccurate information about pictures of a planet outside the Earth’s solar system in a promotional video, causing Google’s shares to drop by as much as 9%.
Google said at the time that it “highlights the importance of a rigorous testing process” — and rebranded Bard as Gemini earlier this month.
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