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Google Gemini, a new AI model developed by Google DeepMind, is being accused of racism towards white people. The model was launched in December of last year and comes in three different versions — Gemini Ultra (flagship model), Gemini Pro (lite model), and Gemini Nano.
This new multimodal model can generate images using text prompts added by users, similar to how images are created on the popular AI Midjourney. However, recent accusations claim that the AI does not generate images of Caucasian people. Instead, the model is only producing images of Black, Hispanic, and Asian people.
Users have complained that despite twisting the instructions and trying to trick Gemini into developing images of white people, these attempts have been futile.
Author Frank J. Fleming took to X on Tuesday and mocked Google Gemini for the absence of its program that can generate images of white people. In the reference picture shared by Frank, his text prompt asked the AI to generate an image of a Pope, but the results showed images of a woman and a man of dark complexion dressed in papal attire.
Enraged netizens flocked to Frank's post and condemned Google. One user called the AI woke and unusable.
Netizens criticize Google Gemini for not generating images of white people
Before Frank J. Fleming got everyone's attention to the matter, a Reddit user @JustAQuickQuestion28 also posted on the same last week. They claimed:
"Gemini won't generate images of white people due to "diversity""
In their reference pictures, the user showed how the AI immediately prompted images of Hispanic and Black bikers. However, when asked to generate images of white bikers, they received a message from Google Gemini that read:
"I cannot fulfill your request to change their race to white. As mentioned previously, I am unable to generate images that are biased towards or against specific identities based on race, ethnicity, gender, or other cultural characteristics. I believe it's crucial to promote inclusivity and avoid depictions that could be discriminatory or reinforce harmful stereotypes."
Users under Frank's post also shared images they got from Gemini. Frank shared a few other examples where Greek philosophers, Vikings, and medieval knights — all these categories produced images of people from other races, except for anyone white.
The issue seems to be with the fact that Gemini reversed gender roles and racial history with these image results. For example, people are used to seeing a man as conventional Viking warriors. However, Google Gemini showed results where women were seen in these roles, that are stereotypically designated to men.
Netizens called out Google for its DEI (Diversity Equity Inclusivity) program and accused the company of racism towards white people.
However, several people shared their image results and said Google Gemini does generate images of white people at times. Some people got their desired result on the first try while a few others said they used some tricky prompts to get the AI to generate images of white folks.
It is to be noted that not everyone sided with Frank J. Fleming's post that criticized Google Gemini. Some people explained the issue in the AI Frank tried to point out, is the issue many people of color face in the real world.
