Google AI Giving Staggeringly Racist “Advice” About Being Alone With Certain Groups of People

Google's AI-generated search results have come under fire for producing racially biased "advice" regarding safety when alone with certain groups of people. This disturbing trend has been observed across various search queries, such as when the user indicates being alone with an African, Indian, Pakistani, or Pakistani individual.

In response, the AI advises locking doors, moving to safe spaces, and contacting emergency services, including 911 in the US. However, when the same query is made for a British person, Google's AI provides decidedly different and more welcoming suggestions, including offering tea and engaging in polite conversation. Google acknowledged the issue, stating that they are working on improvements and that the inconsistent warnings are not specific to any one group.

The company also noted that the word "alone" flagged the prompts as a "safety concern." The racist responses demonstrate how AI models can perpetuate biases present in their training data from the open web. Previous controversies have also surfaced, such as Google's Gemini text-to-image tool producing racially diverse German WW2 soldiers, which led to the tool's temporary shutdown.