Gemini AI ‘fiasco’ sparks renewed concerns of deep-seated political bias at Google

The disastrous debut of Google’s artificial intelligence [AI] chatbot, Gemini, is once again sparking concerns over the Big Tech behemoth’s oft-noted left-leaning ways.

In a piece for Fox Business, reporter Nikolas Lanum calls Gemini an “AI fiasco” and notes that Google is “a company that has repeatedly been accused of favoring Democrats and fostering a culture of progressive workers.”

Lanum cites several examples of Google’s wokeness over the years, starting with a document released in 2017 by one of Google’s software engineers.

“Bias in the tech world has been an issue for years, and it came to a head in 2017 when a male Google software engineer released a 10-page document titled ‘Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber,'” Lanum writes. “In the manifesto that liberal media members crucified at the time as an anti-diversity screed, he claimed that the company had a ‘left bias’ and ‘microaggression training’ had incorrectly equated ‘speech with violence.'”

At the time, Google’s then-Vice President for Diversity, Integrity, and Governance defended the company’s “changing culture” and claimed the engineer’s viewpoint “advanced incorrect assumptions about gender.”

In 2018, a trove of internal video meetings from Google found their way into the media’s hands.

“One of the videos showed an employee asking those in attendance to examine their ‘White privilege’ and urged workers to go through ‘bias-busting training,'” Lanum reports. “The crowd, including senior management, applauded the man as he concluded his speech.”

“Another clip showed ‘White Like Me: Race, Racism and White Privilege in America’ author Tim Wise addressing employees during a DEI workplace training,” he continues. “Wise declared that ‘White anxiety’ is a ‘public health crisis.’ He also warned that it is not just the opioid crisis that is killing Americans but also ‘political opioids,’ wherein voters turn to candidates who say they will bring back jobs and take away their pain.”

Other videos featured Google senior leaders who were “visibly distraught about former President Trump’s 2016 election victory.”

Google co-founder Sergey Brin, an “immigrant and refugee” said he found Trump’s win “deeply offensive” during one employee panel.

“I know many of you do, too,” he told his staffers. “And I think it’s a very stressful time, and it conflicts with many of our values.”

According to Lanum, “Kent Walker, now the chief legal officer at Alphabet Inc. and Eileen Naughton, who has served in various senior roles at Google dating back to 2006, also voiced displeasure at Trump’s win.”

The blatant bias is not surprising, Lanum writes, “given the donations sent to politicians and organizations by those affiliated with Google.”

He explains:

While organizations cannot contribute to candidates and party committees, the figures below include contributions from members, employees, or owners of Google, Alphabet Inc., and those individuals’ immediate family members.

In 2020, those affiliated with Google contributed $22.1 million to Democrats and just $1.22 million to Republicans. Google affiliates in 2022 gave $8.78 million to Democrats and $1.44 million to Republicans, according to Open Secrets.

Thus far, the 2024 election cycle has earned Democrats $2.03 million and Republicans $398,000 via Google affiliates. These numbers are expected to increase dramatically as the election approaches.

And then there’s the fallout from Gemini.

As stocks for Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., dropped to a value of over $70 billion, “scrambling executives from Google couldn’t move fast enough to make their social media accounts private,” BizPac Review reported.

One such exec was Gemini Experiences senior director of product management Jack Krawczyk, who routinely shared his views on systemic racism, climate change, and crying after voting in the 2020 presidential election.

“White privilege is f*cking real. Don’t be an a**hole and act guilty about it — do your part in recognizing bias at all levels of egregious,” read an April 2018 post.

“Problems continued for the company when graphics allegedly created by Google’s diversity and inclusion lead claimed that ‘socially acceptable White supremacy includes things like celebrating Columbus Day, the denial of White privilege, and the phrase “Make America Great Again”,'” Lanum writes. “Another graphic alleged that Trump is ‘a few steps away’ from supposed mass murderers on the White supremacy pyramid.”

As ridiculous as Google’s sheep may sound, their ability to impact a free and fair election is anything but funny.

Writes Lanum:

A 2022 study from the North Carolina State University’s Department of Computer Science found that Google’s Gmail favors liberal candidates, allowing the vast majority of emails from left-wing politicians to land in the user’s inbox, while more than two-thirds of messages from conservative candidates are marked as spam.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) later brought a lawsuit against Google based on the contents of the study, which was dismissed by a U.S. District Court judge who said the political committee had not “sufficiently pled that Google acted in bad faith.”

Another study from AllSides claimed Google News’ bias had “gotten more pronounced” since 2022.

“Sixty-three percent of articles came from media outlets AllSides rates as Lean Left or Left. Just 6% were from the right,” the media bias rating site said.

In response to Lanum’s article, Fox Business anchor David Asman gave thanks to Elon Musk for his commitment to free speech.

“If Donald Trump is elected again, the Silicon Valley elite will use their blatantly distorted, AI-infused algorithms on overtime,” he wrote. “We are so fortunate that THIS venue is up and running. Elon Musk’s X will stand out as an oasis even more than it does now.”

Melissa Fine

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