Elon Musk has publicly criticized Google’s AI, specifically targeting the company’s latest artificial intelligence model, Gemini, for what he describes as “insane racist, anti-civilizational programming.”
Musk’s comments came after Google paused its AI image generator following severe backlash over the tool generating racially biased images.
Musk accused Google of having overreached with the AI’s image-generation capabilities and claimed that the company’s efforts to tackle bias and improve representation had gone directionally wrong, leading to outputs that he deemed racist and sexist.
Musk also criticized a Google executive, Jack Krawczyk, who was involved in the Gemini image generator project, suggesting that Krawczyk’s old posts, which acknowledged white privilege and racism in America, were indicative of the problematic direction of the Gemini project.
Musk’s critique extended to Google’s search function as well, implying that the issues with Gemini were part of a broader problem with Google’s approach to AI.
In response to the controversy, Google acknowledged the limitations in the training data used to develop Gemini and stated that they are working to improve the AI model’s depictions, particularly for historical figures. The company has assured that they are taking immediate action to fix the racial and gender bias identified in Gemini.
Musk has a vested interest in the AI space, having launched his own AI startup, xAI, and developed a chatbot called Grok, which he positions as a direct alternative to other AI products like ChatGPT and Midjourney. Musk has been promoting Grok as a more politically neutral and less “woke” option compared to rival AI tools.
