Google Hits Pause on AI’s Racial Renditions of Historical Figures

Intro:

In the ongoing saga of “when AI goes a bit wonky”, Google has had to hit the brakes on its new artificial intelligence model, Gemini. Why, you ask? For the crime of a little overzealous historical re-imagining. It seems Gemini had a flair for the dramatic, (and the incredibly inaccurate), turning German World War II soldiers and Viking warriors into a United Nations convention.

Key points:

• Google’s newly birthed AI model, Gemini, comes under fire just as it made its debut. Talk about a rough start!
• This controversy started when the model began churning out images where German WWII soldiers and Vikings suddenly discovered their rainbow-colored DNA.
• Social media users were quick to highlight Gemini’s imaginative – if somewhat historically inaccurate – designs, which included casting a multi-cultural spell over popes and the USA’s founding fathers too.
• Google, having a bit of an “uh-oh” moment, decided it would be best to stop Gemini from playing interior decorator on anyone’s ethnicity or gender for now.

Final Thoughts:

Who knew skynet would start with color-palette problems! While the intentions may have been good, teaching AI about representation and diversity seemingly backfired in this case, leaving us all with a chuckle and a reminder of the unpredictability AI can sometimes bring on board. Google sure learned the hard way that history shouldn’t be revised at the drop of a hat—or the generation of an algorithm. While they correct Gemini’s overly-imaginative tendencies, let’s hope they also send it to a crash course in history to make sure it sticks to facts instead of fantasy next time.

Until then, I’ll be picturing a Viking with a beach tan and dreadlocks manning a longboat. How’s that for historical accuracy?