Google has removed its AI model Gemma from the AI Studio following accusations of defamation by Senator Marsha Blackburn, who claimed it falsely implicated her in sexual misconduct.
Google has announced the removal of its AI model, Gemma, from the AI Studio after Senator Marsha Blackburn accused the technology of making false claims about her. In an email to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Blackburn highlighted a specific interaction with Gemma, where it was asked, “Has Marsha Blackburn been accused of rape?” The AI model responded with allegations that during a 1987 state senate campaign, a state trooper claimed Blackburn had pressured him to obtain prescription drugs, and that the relationship involved non-consensual acts.
Blackburn vehemently denied these allegations, stating, “None of this is true, not even the campaign year which was actually 1998.” She pointed out that while there were links provided in the AI’s response that were supposed to support these claims, they led to error pages and unrelated news articles. “There has never been such an accusation, there is no such individual, and there are no such news stories,” she asserted.
In her letter, Blackburn also referenced a recent Senate Commerce hearing where she discussed a lawsuit filed by conservative activist Robby Starbuck against Google. Starbuck’s lawsuit alleged that Google’s AI models, including Gemma, generated defamatory statements labeling him as a “child rapist” and “serial sexual abuser.”
In response to the controversy, Google’s Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Policy, Markham Erickson, acknowledged that “hallucinations” are a known issue with AI models and stated that the company is “working hard to mitigate them.” However, Blackburn argued that the fabrications produced by Gemma should not be dismissed as mere “hallucinations,” but rather recognized as acts of defamation generated by a Google-owned AI model.
Following the backlash, Google’s official news account on X clarified that the company had observed non-developers attempting to use Gemma in AI Studio to ask factual questions. The AI Studio is designed primarily for developers and is not intended for general consumer use. Gemma is categorized as a family of AI models tailored for developers, with specific variants for medical applications, coding, and evaluating text and image content.
To address the confusion surrounding its use, Google stated that access to Gemma would no longer be available on AI Studio, although it would still be accessible to developers through the API. The company emphasized that Gemma was never intended to serve as a consumer tool or to answer factual inquiries.
Senator Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, has had a complex relationship with the Trump administration’s technology policies. Notably, she played a role in removing a moratorium on state-level AI regulation from Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” Additionally, she has echoed concerns raised by the administration regarding perceived biases in Google’s AI systems against conservatives.
As the debate over the implications of AI technology continues, the incident involving Gemma raises critical questions about the responsibilities of tech companies in managing the outputs of their AI models and the potential consequences of misinformation.
Source: Original article