Is the Gemini fallout a 'Bud Light moment' for Google?
Google is facing heavy backlash over accusations that the company is "woke" following the revelation that its new artificial intelligence tool, Gemini, was developed with a bias against White people.
The Alphabet-owned tech giant is scrambling to right ship after pulling the plug on Gemini's image generation features last week, with CEO Sundar Pichai telling employees on Tuesday the company is working "around the clock" to fix the tool's bias, calling the images generated by the model "completely unacceptable."
However, "Public" founder Michael Shellenberger says the fallout over Gemini is Google's "Bud Light moment," likening the situation to what Anheuser-Busch InBev faced after its Bud Light brand was boycotted following a partnership with controversial transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
"The problem for Google, as with Bud Light before it, is that its CEO and other senior executives are still in denial about the problem," Shellenberger told FOX Business in an emailed statement. "They think the problem is just a few tweaks to the AI or the algorithms."
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The journalist and author argues it will take more than fixing Gemini for Google to regain the public's trust.
"The real problem is that Google is a tool of its woke workers and government contractors, who are manipulating Google Search and Google Gemini to divide the American people along racial and partisan lines, censor disfavored views, and spread disinformation about everyone from German farmers to American investigative reporters," Shellenberger wrote.
"Google’s CEO must snap out of denial and commit to political neutrality, which means nonpartisan and balanced political donations, nonpartisan and transparent fact-checking that is accountable for its biases and errors, and an end to censorship of politically disfavored views," he added.
Jessica Melugin, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Technology and Innovation, says she does not believe Google's troubles rise to the same level as Bud Light's.
"I think they’re different in that Bud Light was a marketing mistake, while Gemini was a product mistake," Melugin told FOX Business. "I think the parallel would be skunked beer."
Melugin said she can see how some might see a common thread in terms of political slant, but noted that generative AI competitors have produced bad results in the other direction too, so she thinks Gemini's woes could be attributed to a quality-control issue.
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"Whatever the reason for the bad results, Google has plenty of incentive to fix it," she said, pointing to the beating Alphabet's stock has taken since hitting pause on Gemini.