The recent rollout of Google’s Gemini AI was an absolute disaster by any measure. Over the course of several hours, users across the internet quickly realized the large language model developed by Google had erased white people. The AI model wasn’t just prejudiced based on skin color, but would only give far-left ideological answers to various questions. For example, Gemini refused to acknowledge the shortcomings of communism when prompted. It was able to articulate, however, a diatribe about the folly of capitalism.
As people looked behind the curtain, it became quite clear why this woke machine was incapable of articulating anything to the right of the Democratic Socialists of America manifesto. The team responsible for building Gemini fueled the large learning model with nothing but their liberal tears. A cursory look at the team behind Gemini shows a crew of individuals who have quite a bit of angst against white people, merit, or the capitalist society that made them uber-rich Silicon Valley tycoons paid to build a racist internet tool.
Yet the biggest revelation of this entire episode is the peek behind the curtain of Google’s entire corporate culture. The presuppositions of their entire culture were made clear for all to see. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then after several minutes of experiencing Gemini’s blatant lying about history and society, one should have enough words to write a few books on the bias pulsating throughout its creators. It is no longer acceptable to believe the misinformation campaign (or outright lies) perpetuated by their army of third-party organizations that claim the tech behemoth is incapable of bias. These actions contradict their advocacy and give us even more insights into how Google’s DEI-charged employees imbue their products and services with their woke ideology.
What’s more, anyone with a pulse should now realize that the concerns over Google’s censorship and bias are warranted if they didn’t think so before. Lest we forget that back in 2022 a research group at North Carolina State University proved what every Republican political operative had known for years, Gmail suppressed Republican emails at an alarming rate. The study revealed that “Gmail retained most Democrat candidate emails in its ‘inbox’ tab (less than 10 percent marked as spam) while sending the majority of Republican candidate emails to spam folders (up to 77 percent marked as spam).”
After claiming there was nothing wrong with the algorithm, Google eventually started making cosmetic changes to adjust the output. The fact that Google had to make these changes in the middle of an election year proved the concerned Republican senators right; there was something wrong in how the email service operated, and Google could indeed fix it. For what it’s worth, I’m hearing from various political operatives that the issues are persisting, but they are harder to spot.
It is not just Gmail or Gemini. Major questions have also been raised about the inner workings of YouTube during the Covid panic. As numerous reports have revealed, the staffers at Google worked closely with the Biden administration in censoring various topics and videos that were heterodox to the Covid ideology preferred by the tech company and government agencies.
In fact, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, released a recent trove of documents detailing the easy communication between the government and the tech company. One particularly egregious revelation shows how President Joe Biden’s Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty freely engaged Google executives, convincing the company to amend their content moderation principles at the whim of the White House.
Google put out a non-statement vaguely admitting they got their latest product wrong. I am sure they will relaunch Gemini to include several changes to make the product look less egregious. However, do not be deceived. An updated product will just be window dressing. The rot of their radical leftist ideology permeates everything they do. It is time for a full reboot and reevaluation of how Google operates.
This is also why the emerging AI space creates an opportunity for entrepreneurs to take a different approach. Consumers are hungry for products not informed by the extreme ideology on display at Google, but one that fosters free thought and encourages open discourse. There is clearly a market for this, as described by the near-universal backlash to Gemini. This would greatly contrast with Google, OpenAI, and others trying to lock in the regulatory regime to bolster their supremacy — as Marc Andreessen describes, “a cartel of government-blessed AI vendors protected from new startup and open source competition.”
The time is now for new entrants into the arena to enable the next level of innovation and entrepreneurship by leveraging this emerging technology — breaking the cycle of censorship and gatekeeping we see currently on display.
Nathan Leamer is CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies and Executive Director of the Digital First Project. He previously worked as a Policy Advisor to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide.
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