Elon Musk’s recent skirmish with Google has brought the tech world to attention. The billionaire has been actively critiquing Google on social media platform X, particularly focusing on its Gemini image generator. Since Gemini’s launch, Musk has engaged in over 100 posts discussing the company, most of which are critical.
Google recently faced backlash for pausing Gemini’s image-generating feature due to concerns about historical inaccuracies in images of people of color and odd responses to queries. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis acknowledged the issues and stated the company aimed to resume the feature soon, attributing the problems to a well-intended feature being applied “too bluntly.”
In response, Musk criticized Google’s handling of racial and gender bias in Gemini, accusing the company of promoting “insane racist, anti-civilizational programming” with its AI. He also criticized other Google products, including its search engine and Gmail, hinting at a competing product named “XMail” in development.
Moreover, Musk took aim at Google’s political affiliations, highlighting data showing a significant portion of donations from Alphabet, Google’s parent company, went to Democrats. Musk also criticized individual Google employees, including Gemini’s product lead, Jack Krawczyk, accusing him of contributing to Google’s alleged biases.
Musk has previously voiced concerns about AI biases and even formed his own AI business to develop a chatbot named Grok, which he claims would be less “woke” than its competitors. As a result, his criticisms of Google are not new. In general, Musk’s dispute with Google sheds insight on the current discussion surrounding AI ethics and prejudice in addition to the tech industry’s competitive landscape. It is unclear how this conflict will develop and whether it will have an effect on the future growth of either company.