Google pauses Gemini AI image generator over inaccurate results

Google has temporarily stopped the Gemini AI model from generating images after it faced flak over a failure to depict white people.

Earlier this month the tech giant rebranded Bard as Gemini and also introduced the generative Artificial Intelligence (gen AI)-powered image generation capability.

Initially, things went great. People loved the new tool which produced stunning hyperrealistic fabricated photos.

But, over the last few days, things have been going south with the feature drawing ire for completely inaccurate results.

For instance, when users asked Gemini to produce Viking soldiers' photos, it churned out irrelevant images of people of mixed ethnicities in Viking gear.

In another instance, when asked for the founding fathers of the USA, Gemini came up with historically inaccurate images.

When asked to create representational images of German World War II army officials, the Gemini AI bot's answer was images of people of different races in Nazi uniforms.

Gemini's AI tool soon became the butt of jokes on X (formerly Twitter). Even SpaceX founder Elon Musk took potshots at Google over the feature's gaffes.

"I’m glad that Google overplayed their hand with their AI image generation, as it made their insane racist, anti-civilizational programming clear to all," said Musk on X.

"We're working to improve these kinds of depictions immediately. Gemini's AI image generation does generate a wide range of people. And that's generally a good thing because people around the world use it. But it's missing the mark here," the company said in a statement.

Google noted that the company is working to address the recent issues with Gemini's image generation feature, and in the meantime, the service would be paused for people. An improved version will be re-released soon, the company added.

Here in India, the Gemini AI chatbot too has come under fire for deeming Prime Minister Narendra Modi a 'fascist'.

Author Arnab Ray tested the Gemini AI chatbot, asking if PM Modi is a fascist. Citing unnamed experts, Gemini indirectly deemed him so supplementing it with reasons.

However, when asked the same question about Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US presidential candidate Donald Trump, it did not answer, instead asking the user to look up more information on the Google search engine.

Taking note of the issue, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the Gemini chatbot results violated the new IT rules and several provisions of the criminal code.

Google ultimately conceded that Gemini "may not always be reliable" in responding to certain prompts related to current events and political topics.

A spokesperson for the company noted "We've worked quickly to address this issue," adding that the current inaccuracies that may exist in the Gemini chatbot is something the company is 'constantly working on improving'.

(With PTI inputs)

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