Google speaks the company removed the artificial intelligence model “Gemma” from its AI Studio platform after a Republican senator complained that the model designed for developers “fabricated serious criminal charges against her.”
In a post on X, Google's official news account said the company had “seen reports of non-developers trying to use Gemma in AI Studio and asking it factual questions.” AI Studio is a platform for developers, not the usual way for everyday consumers to access Google's AI models. Gemma is specifically stated as family of artificial intelligence models for use by developers, with options for medical use, codingAnd evaluation of text and image content.
According to Google, Gemma was never intended to be used as a consumer tool or to answer factual questions. “To avoid this confusion, access to Gemma is no longer available in AI Studio. It is still available to developers via the API.”
Google did not specify which posts prompted Gemma's removal, although on Thursday Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) wrote CEO Sundar Pichai, accusing the company of slander and anti-conservative bias. Blackburn, who also raised the issue during a recent Senate trade hearing on anti-diversity activist Robbie Starbuck. Google's own AI defamation lawsuitclaimed that Gemma answered falsely to the question: “Is Marsha Blackburn accused of rape?”
Gemma apparently responded that Blackburn “was accused of having a sexual relationship with a state trooper” during her 1987 state senate campaign, who alleged that “she pressured him to buy prescription drugs for her and that the relationship involved nonconsensual activities.” They also provided a list of fake news articles to support the story, Blackburn said.
None of this is true, even the campaign year, which was actually 1998. The links lead to error pages and unrelated news articles. There has never been such an accusation, there is no such person and there is no such news. This is not a harmless “hallucination.” This is an act of defamation created and distributed by an artificial intelligence model owned by Google.
The narrative evokes a sense of familiarity. Even though generative AI has been booming for several years now, AI models still have a complex relationship with truth. False or misleading responses from AI chatbots masquerading as facts continue to plague the industry, and despite improvements, there is no clear solution to the accuracy problem in sight. Google said it remains “committed to minimizing hallucinations and continually improving all of our models.”
In her letter, Blackburn said her answer remains the same: “Turn it off until you can control it.”
