Google Pauses Gemini AI's Image Generation of People Due to Accuracy Concerns

Google, under Alphabet, announced on Thursday that it will temporarily halt the AI model Gemini's generation of images depicting people and plans to introduce an enhanced version in the near future. Acknowledging concerns about inaccuracies in certain historical image depictions generated by Gemini, Google stated this on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, Google introduced image generation capabilities through its Gemini AI models. However, in recent days, concerns have arisen on social media regarding the accuracy of historical images generated by the model. Just yesterday, Google announced that it will be integrating its "Gemini" AI models into certain business tools, offering them at a lower price point in a bid to rival Microsoft-backed OpenAI.

The Alphabet unit in August last year introduced "Duet AI in Workspace", a set of AI assistants that could write in Google Docs, draft emails in Gmail and generate custom visuals in Google Slides, among other capabilities, at a monthly price of $30 per user for companies.

Since the debut of OpenAI's ChatGPT in November 2022, Google has been in a race to develop AI software that can compete with what the Microsoft-backed company has introduced. Last year, when Google launched its generative AI chatbot, Bard, the company faced criticism for sharing inaccurate information about images of a planet outside the Earth's solar system in a promotional video. This misstep caused shares to decline by as much as 9%.