Google Pauses AI Image-generation of People After Diversity Backlash

Google has temporarily stopped its latest AI model, Gemini, from generating images of people (non-paywalled link), as a backlash erupted over the model's depiction of people from diverse backgrounds. From a report: Gemini creates realistic images based on users' descriptions in a similar manner to OpenAI's ChatGPT. Like other models, it is trained not to respond to dangerous or hateful prompts, and to introduce diversity into its outputs. However, some users have complained that it has overcorrected towards generating images of women and people of colour, such that they are featured in historically inaccurate contexts, for instance in depictions of Viking kings.

Google said in a statement: 'We're working to improve these kinds of depictions immediately. Gemini's image generation does generate a wide range of people. And that's generally a good thing because people around the world use it. But it's missing the mark here.' It added that it would 'pause the image-generation of people and will re-release an improved version soon.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.