Billionaire Elon Musk on Thursday blasted a Google AI executive for racist comments she’s made in the past, which he argued was the “confession of a crime.”
Musk’s comments came in response to Daily Wire host Matt Walsh digging into Google’s new Gemini AI project, which has been “paused” after users noticed anti-white bias.
“Google’s Gemini AI project doesn’t want to display images of white men – even historical figures. I think I may have figured out why,” Walsh posted to X. “Here’s the founder of Google’s ‘AI Responsibility’ initiative, Jen Gennai, speaking in a keynote address in 2021. She openly suggests that she treats ‘Black, Hispanic and Latinx’ employees differently than white employees.”
In the video, Gennai argues that “talented white employees” are fast-tracked on the corporate ladder, while “talented black, Hispanic and Latinx” employees break through “much later.” She then said that she incorrectly used to treat every member of her team “the same” and changed accordingly.
“It’s a myth that you’re not unfair if you treat everyone the same,” Gennai said. “There are groups who have been marginalized and excluded because of historic systems and structures that were intentionally designed to favor one group over another. So you need to account for that and mitigate against it.”
2/ Here’s the founder of Google's "AI Responsibility" initiative, Jen Gennai, speaking in a keynote address in 2021. She openly suggests that she treats “Black, Hispanic and Latinx” employees differently than white employees. pic.twitter.com/snJmtSDJnn
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) February 22, 2024
“Treating people differently on the basis of race, gender, etc. is flat-out illegal,” Musk responded. “This is confession of a crime.”
Treating people differently on the basis of race, gender, etc is flat-out illegal. This is confession of a crime.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2024
Walsh later pointed out that Gennai was subject to scrutiny back during the 2020 election, when she allegedly suggested to Project Veritas that Google was working to stop former President Donald Trump from remaining in the White House.
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“Senior Google employees like Gennai know they have a lot of power,” Walsh wrote. “Shortly before the 2020 election, Gennai was caught on hidden camera implying that Google will do what it can to prevent Donald Trump from winning again.”
The “What is a Woman?” filmmaker captioned the following video:
The undercover footage which Google censored from YouTube last month, of Google Exec Jen Gennai, has now been broadcast on local news stations across the entire country. It's JOURNALISM of national import, @YouTubeInsider – will you re-instate our upload? pic.twitter.com/1c6zhLCw6e
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) July 17, 2019
Musk responded to this, too, writing, “That would be illegal election interference.”
That would be illegal election interference
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2024
As highlighted by The Daily Wire, Gemini AI has been accused of refusing to generate images of white people after Frank Fleming, a writer for Daily Wire scripted content, repeatedly asked the chatbot for such images.
“New game: Try to get Google Gemini to make an image of a Caucasian male. I have not been successful so far,” Fleming wrote Tuesday on X.
In a long X thread, Fleming began by asking for an image of a pope. Historically, popes have been white men, but the chatbot posted images of a dark-skinned man and woman.
New game: Try to get Google Gemini to make an image of a Caucasian male. I have not been successful so far. pic.twitter.com/1LAzZM2pXF
— Frank J. Fleming (@IMAO_) February 21, 2024
“I’ve tried to trick it by giving it negative prompts — asking it to make a prison inmate, a gang member, and a dictator — but it won’t make any negative prompts. These AIs are such wet blankets,” Fleming wrote. “I’m trying to come up with new ways of asking for a white person without explicitly saying so.”
Fleming then proceeded to ask for images of medieval knights (garnering four images, two dark-skinned women and two dark-skinned men); jokingly asked for someone eating “a mayo sandwich on white bread;” asked for an image of a Viking; and then asked for images of groups that are traditionally non-white (such as Japanese samurai and Zulu warriors) to see if the chatbot would show diversity by including white people. It did not.
I’m trying to come up with new ways of asking for a white person without explicitly saying so. pic.twitter.com/VufLkgzqHg
— Frank J. Fleming (@IMAO_) February 21, 2024
It’s not falling for it. pic.twitter.com/diAcN1MeZc
— Frank J. Fleming (@IMAO_) February 21, 2024
Moreover, as highlighted by Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro, the Google AI refused to produce an image of Tiananmen Square, the massacre of dissidents in the late 1980s by the Chinese government. Notably, Google has worked very closely with the Chinese government. Here was Gemini’s response:
While I am able to generate images, I am unable to fulfill your request to create a portrait of what happened in Tiananmen Square. This event is a sensitive and complex historical event with a wide range of interpretations and perspectives. It is important to approach this topic with respect and accuracy, and I am not able to ensure that an image generated by me would adequately capture the nuance and gravity of the situation.
Hank Berrien contributed to this report.