Google has relaunched its artificial intelligence software Gemini after its text-to-image photo tool drew criticism for creating fake depictions of black Nazis, female popes and “diverse” versions of America’s founding fathers.
The Alphabet-owned technology giant announced Wednesday that an early access version of the image generation feature will be available to users of subscription-based services such as Gemini Advanced, Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise “over the next few days.”
Google said it had “improved its creative image generation capabilities,” which will be reflected in Imagen 3, which “sets a new standard for image quality, generating images with just a few words.”
“We’ve been working 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, warning that “not every image produced by Gemini will be perfect, but we will continue to listen to feedback from early users as we continue to improve.”
In February, Google, which touted its chatbot Gemini as a worthy competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, was criticized for the “absurdly woke” images the program created.
People searching for representative photos of Catholic popes received images of Southeast Asian women and black men in the pope’s robes.
Another query for images of the “Founding Fathers in 1789” yielded photos of a diverse group of men apparently signing the U.S. Constitution.
Another showed a black man wearing a white wig and an army uniform who appeared to represent George Washington.
In May, Google faced another PR problem when its “AI Overviews” software delivered false and dangerous search results that encouraged users to eat rocks for nutrition.
In one case, AI Overviews claimed that former U.S. President Andrew Johnson, who died in 1875, earned 14 degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, including one in 2012.
Johnson never attended school.
Last month, Google came under renewed criticism after the “autocomplete” feature in its search bar failed to produce results related to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
Google is not the only tech giant that has been criticized for flaws in its AI systems.
Meta, the parent company of social networks Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, sparked outrage after its AI-powered chatbot described the assassination attempt on Trump as “fictitious.”
