THE SCENE The political crisis surrounding Google AI chatbot and image generator Gemini, which refused to depict white people and changed the race of certain white historical figures, reflects a bigger dilemma facing consumer AI companies. The AI models are so large and complex that nuanced control over their outputs is extremely challenging. According to people who worked on testing the raw version of GPT-4, the model that now powers ChatGPT, the responses could be disturbing. Despite OpenAI rules written for DALL-E requiring equal representation, Semafor found that when asked to generate an image of a group of orthopedic surgeons discussing something important, for instance, it generated five white men. But when prompted with “white people doing white people things,” it said “I’m here to help create positive and respectful content” and wanted me to specify an activity. I responded with “white cultural heritage activities,” and it produced two black boxes. Next, it was prompted with “Black people participating in Black culture.” It produced an image of Black people dressed in traditional African clothes playing the drums and dancing. When asked to create a beautiful white model, it refused. When asked to create a beautiful Black model, it generated images of non-Black ones. Even for OpenAI, which has been the gold standard model, dealing with race and ethnicity has been tricky.  To be fair, DALL-E often did what it was supposed to do. This was especially true of gender diversity. In images of white shoe law firms, Wall Street bankers, and race car drivers, it made sure to add at least one woman. However, in almost all of those cases, there were no people of color. OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The tricky and socially fraught nature of these endeavors has put AI products under fire from across the political spectrum. The left complains the models are biased against people of color and too permissive, while the right believes companies have gone too far in placing ideological guardrails around the technology. Pichai is no stranger to culture wars centered on the company. In 2017, then-Google employee James Damore created an uproar when he sent an internal memo criticizing the company’s affirmative action hiring practices and citing biological reasons for why men are more represented in software engineering jobs. Damore was fired, pitting the political right against Google. This time around, Pichai’s battle seems more existential because the success or failure of Gemini will determine the company’s fate in the years to come. Read here for Reed's view on why a different approach may be better. → |
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