IN FEBRUARY, FREAKOUTS over artificial intelligence took a fun twist. This time, it wasn’t concern that humans are ushering in our robot overlords, panic about AI’s potential to create realistic fakes, or any of the usual fare. It wasn’t really about AI at all, but the humans who create it: woke humans.
The controversy started when @EndWokeness, a popular account on X (formerly Twitter), posted pictures generated by Google’s AI tool, Gemini, for the prompts “America’s Founding Fathers,” “Vikings,” and “the Pope.” The results were all over the people-of-color spectrum, but nary a white face turned up. At least one of the pope images was even a woman.
This is, of course, ahistorical. But for some people, it was worse than that—it was a sign that the folks at Google were trying to rewrite history or, at least, sneak progressive fan fiction into it. (Never mind that Gemini also generated black and Asian Nazi soldiers.)
Google quickly paused Gemini’s ability to generate people. “Gemini image generation got it wrong. We’ll do better,” Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan posted on the Google blog.
Today, when I asked Gemini for a picture of the pope, I got Pope Francis. When I asked for a black Viking, I was told, “We are working to improve Gemini’s ability to generate images of people.” When I asked if it could make a white lady, I was told, “It’s a delicious drink made with gin, orange liqueur, lemon juice, and egg white” or, alternately, that it was not currently possible for it to generate an image of a woman.
Esta historia es de la edición June 2024 de Reason magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición June 2024 de Reason magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Libertarianism From the Ground Up
ARGUMENTS FOR LIBERTARIANISM typically take two forms. Some libertarians base their creed on natural rights-the idea that each individual has an inborn right to self-ownership, or freedom from aggression, or whatever-and proceed to argue that only a libertarian political regime is compatible with those rights.
Lawlessness and Liberalism
THE UNITED STATES is notorious both for mass incarceration and for militarized police forces.
Politics Without Journalism
THE 2024 CAMPAIGN WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT FOR THE WAY WE PROCESS PUBLIC AFFAIRS.
EVERY BODY HATES PRICES
BUT THEY HELP US DECIDE BETWEEN BOURBON AND BACONATORS.
The Great American City Upon a Hill Is Always Under Construction
AMERICA'S UTOPIAN DREAMS LEAD TO URBAN EXPERIMENTATION.
Amanda Knox Tells Her Own Story
\"OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM RELIES UPON OUR OWN IGNORANCE AND THE FACT THAT WE DON'T KNOW WHAT OUR RIGHTS ARE.\"
Trade Policy Amnesia
WHILE HE WAS interviewing for the job, President Joe Biden demonstrated an acute awareness of how tariffs work. It's worrisome that he seems to have forgotten that or, worse, chosen to ignore it-since he's been president.
Civil Liberties Lost Under COVID
WHEN JOE BIDEN was sworn in as president in January 2021, he had good reason to be optimistic about the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bye, Joe
AMERICA'S 46th president is headed out the door. After a single term marked by ambitious plans but modest follow-through, Joe Biden is wrapping up his time in office and somewhat reluctantly shuffling off into the sunset.
Q&A Mark Calabria
IF YOU HAVE a mortgage on your home, the odds are that it's backed by one of two congressionally chartered, government-sponsored enterprises (GSES), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
