Gemini AI Takes A Timeout: Google Halts Image Generation After Historical Figure Controversy

Alphabet Inc.'s GOOG GOOGL Google has put a temporary halt on its Gemini AI’s ability to generate images of people after inaccuracies in the representation of historical figures were discovered.

What Happened: Gemini AI was found to be generating incorrect images of historical figures, prompting the tech company to suspend the feature.

The AI tool had been creating diverse images of US Founding Fathers and Nazi-era German soldiers, seemingly challenging racial and gender stereotypes.

"We’re already working to address recent issues with Gemini’s image generation feature. While we do this, we’re going to pause the image generation of people and will re-release an improved version soon."

We used Google Gemini to generate an AI image of a man riding a bike but received the following response.

The decision was made less than a day after Google apologized for inaccuracies in some historical images generated by Gemini. Some users had been requesting images of historical groups or figures and found non-white AI-generated people in the results, sparking online conspiracy theories.

Google initially launched image generation through Gemini earlier this month, aiming to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot MSFT. The tool produces a collection of images based on text input.

Why It Matters: The suspension of Gemini’s image generation feature comes on the heels of recent criticisms of the AI tool. Google admitted that Gemini had been “missing the mark” after the internet was flooded with AI-generated images riddled with basic errors.

Gemini had been criticized for generating irrelevant images or refusing to generate images at all. Gemini failed to generate accurate images of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in one instance.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

Photo courtesy: Google