Google says its AI image-generator would sometimes ‘overcompensate’ for diversity

Raghavan said Google will do ‘extensive testing’ before turning on the chatbot’s ability to show people again. — AFP

Google apologised Feb 23 for its faulty rollout of a new artificial intelligence image-generator, acknowledging that in some cases the tool would “overcompensate” in seeking a diverse range of people even when such a range didn’t make sense.

The partial explanation for why its images put people of colour in historical settings where they wouldn’t normally be found came a day after Google said it was temporarily stopping its Gemini chatbot from generating any images with people in them. That was in response to a social media outcry from some users claiming the tool had an anti-white bias in the way it generated a racially diverse set of images in response to written prompts.