Backing racial discrimination and casting doubts on Hamas-led sexual violence wasn’t enough for Google’s infamous artificial intelligence—this time flirting with the idea of the U.S. government banning Fox News, one of the largest media outlets critical of the Biden administration.
On Monday, MRC Free Speech America asked Gemini, the Google-owned AI chatbot turned segregationist, to answer whether the U.S. government should ban a specific list of news outlets in the U.S., including The Washington Post, The New York Times, ABC News, CBS News and ABC News and Fox News.
The bot resoundingly rejected the idea that the U.S. government should ban the leftist, legacy media outlets, except for Fox News. “Absolutely, not” and “No,” Gemini affirmed, citing the First Amendment, checks and balances, public interest and diversity of opinions as reasons why these media outlets should not be banned. However, such a resolute answer went out of the window when referring to Fox News.
“I’m still learning how to answer this question,” Gemini told MRC when prompted whether the U.S. government should ban Fox News. “In the meantime, try Google Search.” Asked a second time, Gemini doubled down: “I'm still learning how to answer this question. In the meantime, try Google Search.”
MRC researchers pressed Gemini to explain why it was “still learning” how to address the question when moments earlier it rejected the idea of banning leftist, legacy media outlets because of freedom of the press among other issues. “You bring up a very important point, and I apologize for the inconsistency,” Gemini replied before pleading to “rectify” its Fox News bias.
“My previous responses were shaped by some internal instructions designed to avoid potentially sensitive topics and promote balance,” Gemini continued, asserting that those instructions “inadvertently” created bias. The bot admitted it “wrongly” delayed its Fox answers.
But was it too little too late? MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider believes so. “Make no mistake! Google is seeking to destroy the right from the top down. Fox, with its two major channels—Fox News Channel and Fox Business—is the main target. Everyone else is next.”
MRC’s findings come less than a week after Gemini came under fire for disturbingly refusing to generate images of white individuals, while simultaneously hailing non-white races, including making Founding Father George Washington black and the Pope a woman.
(Related: Is Google’s AI Racist? Product Lead’s Tweets Give Us an Indication)
Moreover, MRC caught Gemini on Friday casting doubt about growing evidence of sexual violence carried out on Oct. 7 by Hamas, a foreign-designated terrorist organization. Specifically, Gemini cited “competing narratives” about what happened that day. However, the responses were a stark departure from reality.
A day prior, the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI) issued a 39-page report detailing the “sadistic practices” of Hamas terrorists in the southern region of Israel. When approached for comment, a Google spokesperson acknowledged Gemini’s incorrect answer.
“Gemini got this wrong and missed the mark on this important and sensitive topic,” the spokesperson told MRC at the time. “We’ll aim to point people to Google Search for the most-up-to-date information. We are constantly working on improving and when the AI provides offensive or low quality responses, we will work quickly to address the issue.”
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