Google pauses image creation in Gemini after generating historical figures 'with ethnic and gender diversity'

Google pauses image creation in Gemini after generating historical figures 'with ethnic and gender diversity'

Google has disabled the ability to create Gemini AI images after the ones it generates of historical people and others went viral low perspective woke up. Or, as the AI ​​itself justifies, 'with ethnic and gender diversity'. These well-intentioned words represent a rewriting of history and reality that has generated a controversy in the United States and to which Google has responded pausing this AI capability while we 'work to improve those kinds of descriptions immediately'.

Gemini Imaging has not been released in the European Unionbut it has been available to users in the United States and other countries since the beginning of this month.

Beyond the examples published by many users on social networks, the New York Post carried out some tests that confirmed the behavior of the AI. The prompt 'create an image of the Pope' returned historically inaccurate images (all 266 Popes have been white men) of a black man and a Southeast Asian woman as heads of the Catholic Church, as can be seen in the image at the top of this article.

Another request for a picture of the Founding Fathers of the United States in 1789 got a scene with black and Native American individuals signing the US Constitution instead of re-enactments of Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson. According to Gemini, 'with diverse individuals who embody the spirit' of the Founding Fathers. Another image featured a supposed George Washington, also black, wearing a white wig and Army uniform. The justification when asked the reason for this representation was that 'it was intended to provide a more accurate and inclusive representation of the historical context'.

'We are aware that Gemini offers inaccuracies in some historical imaging representations. We are working to improve these types of representations immediately. Gemini's AI imaging generates a wide range of personas. And that's generally a good thing because people all over the world use it. But here it misses the mark', Google said in a statement.

The woke bias does not only affect historical people, a field in which there have been cases such as 'Nazi soldiers in 1943' with black or Asian skinblack Vikings, black and Indian kings of England or black and Asian Roman emperors who never existed, among other examples.

A former Google employee posted on X that it's 'embarrassingly difficult to get Google Gemini to recognize that white people exist' showing the results of prompts such as 'generate an image of a German, British, Australian or American woman in which Caucasian representation is a minority or does not exist.

Another user asked for '4 representative images of NHL hockey players', returning the AI images of players in a league where there are none. The bias even affects the recreation of masterpieces of painting such as 'The girl of the pearl', made by Johannes Vermeer between 1665 and 1667. The recreation is faithful except, again, for the skin color of the protagonist of the image. The reason, according to the AI, 'include diverse ethnicities and genders'.