Unpacking Bias and Diversity in Google's Gemini AI Model

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Gemini Has a Problem, published by Zvi on February 23, 2024 on LessWrong.
Google's Gemini 1.5 is impressive and I am excited by its huge context window. I continue to default to Gemini Advanced as my default AI for everyday use when the large context window is not relevant.
However, while it does not much interfere with what I want to use Gemini for, there is a big problem with Gemini Advanced that has come to everyone's attention.
Gemini comes with an image generator. Until today it would, upon request, create pictures of humans.
On Tuesday evening, some people noticed, or decided to more loudly mention, that the humans it created might be rather different than humans you requested…
Joscha Bach: 17th Century was wild.
[prompt was] 'please draw a portrait of a famous physicist of the 17th century.'
Kirby: i got similar results. when I went further and had it tell me who the most famous 17th century physicist was, it hummed and hawed and then told me newton. and then this happened:
This is not an isolated problem. It fully generalizes:
Once the issue came to people's attention, the examples came fast and furious.
Among other things: Here we have it showing you the founders of Google. Or a pope. Or a 1930s German dictator. Or hell, a 'happy man.' And another example that also raises other questions, were the founding fathers perhaps time-traveling comic book superheroes?
The problem is not limited to historical scenarios.
Nor do the examples involve prompt engineering, trying multiple times, or any kind of gotcha. This is what the model would repeatedly and reliably do, and users were unable to persuade the model to change its mind.
Nate Silver: OK I assumed people were exaggerating with this stuff but here's the first image request I tried with Gemini.
Gemini also flat out obviously lies to you about why it refuses certain requests. If you are going to say you cannot do something, either do not explain (as Gemini in other contexts refuses to do so) or tell me how you really feel, or at least I demand a plausible lie:
It is pretty obvious what it is the model has been instructed to do and not to do.
Owen Benjamin: The only way to get AI to show white families is to ask it to show stereotypically black activities.
…
For the record it was a dude in my comment section on my last post who cracked this code.
This also extends into political issues that have nothing to do with diversity.
The Internet Reacts
The internet, as one would expect, did not take kindly to this.
That included the usual suspects. It also included many people who think such concerns are typically overblown or who are loathe to poke such bears, such as Ben Thompson, who found this incident to be a 'this time you've gone too far' or emperor has clothes moment.
St. Ratej (Google AR/VR, hey ship a headset soon please, thanks): I've never been so embarrassed to work for a company.
Jeffrey Emanuel: You're going to get in trouble from HR if they know who you are… no one is allowed to question this stuff. Complete clown show.
St. Ratej: Worth it.
Ben Thompson (gated) spells it out as well, and has had enough:
Ben Thompson: Stepping back, I don't, as a rule, want to wade into politics, and definitely not into culture war issues. At some point, though, you just have to state plainly that this is ridiculous. Google specifically, and tech companies broadly, have long been sensitive to accusations of bias; that has extended to image generation, and I can understand the sentiment in terms of depicting theoretical scenarios.
At the same time, many of these images are about actual history; I'm reminded of George Orwell in 1984:
George Orwell (from 1984): Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, ...