The controversy surrounding the AI chatbot Gemini has reignited concerns about political bias at Google, with past incidents highlighting accusations of left-leaning bias within the company.
Issues such as wage discrimination, internal meetings focusing on topics like White privilege, and political donations favoring Democrats have further fueled these concerns.
“I know many of you do, too. And I think it’s a very stressful time, and it conflicts with many of our values,” Google co-founder Sergey Brin said of the 2016 election.
An AllSides study stated that Google News’ bias had “gotten more pronounced” in recent years.
“Sixty-three percent of articles came from media outlets AllSides rates as Lean Left or Left. Just 6% were from the right,” the site stated.
Recent controversies, including inappropriate image generation by the chatbot and statements from Google’s DEI leader, have added to the company’s challenges.
“I was just on TikTok and there’s a trend where parents are teaching their kids not to see ‘color,’ quote/unquote, and I’m like, OK, so the next round of people that are going to be joining our workforce, this next generation are going to be dealing with the same issues that we’re dealing with now,” DEI leader Adriele Parker said. “Because to say you don’t see color, you don’t see me, you don’t care to acknowledge the struggles that people like me face.”
Google has acknowledged bias in its AI tool and plans to relaunch its image generation capabilities after pausing them in response to the backlash.
