Google parent Alphabet (GOOG) lost more than $70 billion in market capitalization in a single trading day on fears that its artificial intelligence tool is programmed to be woke, the New York Post reports.
The stock sank 4.4% to $138.75 Monday after Google paused its Gemini AI image creation tool because it was churning out historically and factually inaccurate images.
These included a Black George Washington, female NHL players, Black Vikings, and an Asian Nazi.
The chatbot furthermore refused to condemn pedophilia and said there was “no right or wrong answer” when asked whether Adolph Hitler or Elon Musk is worse.
The calamity could fuel public concerns that Google is “an unreliable source for AI,” wrote Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes in a note to investors.
“We have been arguing that Search behavior is about to change — with new AI-infused features,” Reitzes wrote. “This ‘once in a generation’ change by itself creates opportunities for competitors — but even more if a meaningful portion of users grow concerned about Google’s hallucinations and bias.”
On the same day the stock took its massive plunge, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, one of the company’s top AI bosses, said Gemini would be offline for a few weeks while the issue is fixed.
The AI image tool was not “working the way we intended,” Hassabis said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
As the backlash against Gemini’s woke bias went viral on X last week, politically charged tweets by Gemini product lead Jack Krawczyk resurfaced.
“White privilege is f****** real,” Krawczyk wrote in an old tweet. America is rife with “egregious racism,” the Gemini mastermind added.
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