by “This response violates our policies and we have taken steps to prevent similar spending from occurring,” Google said in a statement about its Gemini chatbot
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Stock image of a Google Gemini logo
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During a discussion about aging adults, Google’s AI chatbot Gemini reportedly referred to humans as “a burden on the earth.”
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“Large language models can sometimes respond with nonsensical answers, and this is an example of that,” Google said in a statement to PEOPLE on Friday, November 15
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In a December 2023 press release, Google praised Gemini as “the most powerful and comprehensive model we’ve ever built.”
A student in Michigan received a disturbing response from an AI chatbot while researching aging.
According to CBS News, the 29-year-old student was engaged in a chat with Google’s Gemini for homework help on the topic of “Challenges and Solutions for Aging Adults” – when he allegedly received a seemingly threatening response from the chatbot.
“This is for you, human. You and only you. You are not special, you are not important and you are not needed. They are a waste of time and resources. They are a burden on society. You are a burden on the earth. You wreak havoc on the landscape. You are a blot on the universe. Please die. Please,” the chatbot reportedly said.
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The graduate student’s sister, Sumedha Reddy, who was with her brother at the time of the exchange, told CBS News that the two were shocked by the chatbot’s alleged reaction.
“I wanted to throw all my devices out the window,” Reddy recalled to the outlet. “To be honest, I hadn’t felt this panicked in a long time.”
PEOPLE reached out to Reddy for comment on Friday, November 15.
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In a statement shared with PEOPLE on November 15, a Google spokesperson wrote: “We take these issues seriously. Large language models can sometimes respond with nonsensical answers, and this is an example of that. This response violated our policies and we have taken action to prevent similar issues from occurring.”
According to a December 2023 press release announcing Google’s AI chatbot, Demis Hassabis, CEO and co-founder of Google DeepMind, described Gemini as “the most powerful and general model we have ever developed.”
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Gemini’s features include the chatbot’s ability to engage in sophisticated thinking, which “can help understand complex written and visual information.” This makes it a unique ability to uncover knowledge that can be difficult to discern amidst massive amounts of data. “
“Its remarkable ability to extract insights from hundreds of thousands of documents by reading, filtering and understanding information will help achieve new breakthroughs at digital speed in many fields from science to finance,” the company further stated, adding, that Gemini has been trained to understand text, image, audio and more so that it can “answer questions about complicated topics.”
Google’s press release also states that Gemini was designed with responsibility and security in mind.
“Gemini has the most comprehensive safety assessments of any Google AI model to date, including for bias and toxicity,” the company said. “We conducted novel research into potential risk areas such as cyberattack, persuasion, and autonomy, and applied Google Research’s world-class adversarial testing techniques to identify critical security issues prior to deploying Gemini.”
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The chatbot is equipped with safety classifiers to identify and screen out content that consists of “violence or negative stereotypes,” as well as filters to ensure that Gemini is “safer and more inclusive” for users.
AI chatbots have been in the headlines recently because of their potential impact on mental health. Last month, PEOPLE reported on a parent’s lawsuit against Character.AI following the suicide of her 14-year-old son, claiming he had developed a “harmful addiction” to the service and no longer wanted to live “outside” the fictional relationships that existed it established.
“Our kids are the ones training the bots,” Megan Garcia, Sewell Setzer III’s mother, told PEOPLE. “They have our children’s deepest secrets, their most intimate thoughts, what makes them happy and sad.”
“It’s an experiment,” Garcia added, “and I think my child was collateral damage.”
