Google rebooted its Gemini artificial intelligence software after its text-to-image photo tool sparked condemnation for generating fake depictions of black Nazis, female popes and “diverse” versions of America’s Founding Fathers.
The Alphabet-owned tech giant announced on Wednesday that an early access version of the image-generating feature will be available for users of subscription-based services such as Gemini Advanced, Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise “over the coming days.”
Google said that it has “upgraded our creative image generation capabilities” which will be demonstrated in its Imagen 3, which “sets a new standard for image quality, generating images with just a few words.”
“We’ve worked to make technical improvements to the product, as well as improved evaluation sets, red-teaming exercises and clear product principles,” the company said in a blog post, cautioning that “not every image Gemini creates will be perfect, but we’ll continue to listen to feedback from early users as we keep improving.”
In February, Google, which touted its Gemini chat bot as a worthy rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, was criticized for the “absurdly woke” images that were created by the program.
People who typed in prompts for representative photos of Catholic popes saw images of Southeast Asian woman and black men wearing the pontiff’s garbs.
Another query for images of “the Founding Fathers in 1789” generated photos of a diverse group of men signing what appeared to the US Constitution.
Another showed a black man appearing to represent George Washington, in a white wig and wearing an Army uniform.
In May, Google had another public relations headache on its hands when its AI Overviews software gave incorrect and dangerous search answers that encouraged users to eat rocks for nutrition.
In one case, AI Overviews claimed that former US President Andrew Johnson, who died in 1875, had obtained 14 degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, including one as recently as 2012.
Johnson never attended the school.
Last month, Google once again came under fire after its “Autocomplete” function on its search toolbar failed to produce results for the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
Google isn’t the only tech giant that was criticized for bugs in its AI systems.
Meta, the parent company of social media networks Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, sparked anger after its AI-powered chat bot deemed that the attempted assassination of Trump was “fictional.”
