Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google to pause Gemini image generation of people after issues

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

851–860 of 1001 posts

Re: Google to pause Gemini image generation of people after issues

#851

Post by Intralexical »

andy_xor_andrew wrote: post #766
aliasxneo wrote: post #544

Quite the cultural flame war in this thread. For me, the whole incident points to the critical importance of open models. A bit of speculation, but if AI is eventually intended to play a role in education, this sort of control would be a dream for historical revisionists. The classic battle of the thought police is now being extended to AI.

> Quite the cultural flame war in this thread. It's kind of the perfect storm, because both sides of the argument include a mixture of reasonable well-intentioned people, and crazy extremists. However you choose to be upset about this, you always have someone crazy to point at.

> However you choose to be upset about this, you always have someone crazy to point at.

Scary! I hope nobody finds a way to exploit this dynamic for profit.

Re: Google to pause Gemini image generation of people after issues

#852

Post by shagie »

kragen wrote: post #794
shagie wrote: post #790

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (how do the inuit do it? perhaps their diet has enough vitamin d even without sun?) Two parts: First, they're not exposing their skin to the sun. There's no reason to have paler skin to get more UV if it's covered up most of the year. Secondly, for the Inuit diet there are parts that are very Vitamin D rich... and there are still problems. Vitamin D-rich marine Inuit diet and markers of inflammation – a population-…

wow, thank you, this is great information! do you suppose the traditional scandinavian diet is also lower in vitamin d? or is their apparent selection for blondness just a result of genetically higher vitamin d needs?

Note that I'm not medically trained nor a dietician... so this is pure layman poorly founded speculation...

I am inclined to believe that genetic changes within the Inuit reduce vitamin D needs, the modern Scandinavian diet differs from a historical one, the oceanic climate of Scandinavia is warmer than the inland climate of North America (compare Yellowknife 62° N with Rana at 66° N and Tromsø at 69° N https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subarctic_climate ) so that more skin can be non-fatally exposed...

And the combination of this had more skin exposed for better vitamin D production in Scandinavia and so the pressure was for lighter skin while the diet of the Inuit meant that that pressure for skin tone wasn't selected for.

... And I'll 100% defer to someone else with a better understanding of the genetics and dietitian aspects.

Re: Google to pause Gemini image generation of people after issues

#853

Post by wazoox »

this_user wrote: post #581
wazoox wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depicting Black or Asian or native American people as Nazis is hardly "Social Justice" if you ask me but hey, what do I know :)

That's not really the point. The point is that Google are so far down the DEI rabbit hole that facts are seen as much less important than satisfying their narrow yet extremist criteria of what reality ought to be even if that means producing something that bears almost no resemblance to what actually was or is. In other words, having diversity everywhere is the prime objective, and if that means you claim that there…

I know, the heads of Gemini are white men, but they're constantly doing virtue signalling on twitter about systemic racism, inclusivity, etc. Well, what about hiring black women instead of firing them like Timnit Gebru, you fucking hypocrites? These people make me sick.

Re: Google to pause Gemini image generation of people after issues

#854

Post by paulddraper »

magnoliakobus wrote: post #802
influx wrote: post #782

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ask James Damore what happens when you ask too many questions of the wrong ideology...

I've truly never worked a job in my life where I would not be fired for sending a message to all my coworkers about how a particular group of employees are less likely to be as proficient at their work as I am due to some immutable biological trait(s) they possess, whether it be construction/pipefitting or software engineering. It's bad for business, productivity, and incredibly socially maladaptive behavior, let alo…

> sending a message to all my coworkers

Damore didn't send anything to all coworkers. He sent a detailed message as part of a very specific conversation with a very specific group on demographic statistics at Google and their causes.

In fact, it was Damore's detractors that published it widely. If it the crime was distribution, and not thoughtcrime, wouldn't they be fired?

---

Now, maybe that's not a conversation that should have existed in a workplace in the first place. I'd buy that. But's it's profoundly disingenuous for a company to deliberately invite/host a discussion, then fire anyone with a contrary opinion.

Re: Google to pause Gemini image generation of people after issues

#857

Post by shapenamer »

joshuaissac wrote: post #228
bondarchuk wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Swedish blonde ? yes Irish red-head ? yes A French brunette ? yes A Southern Italian ? yes A Lebanese ? no An Irianian ? no A Berber ? no A Morrocan ? no A Russian ? yes A Palestinian no, A Greek yes, A Turk no, An Arab ? no You might quibble with a few of them but you might also (classic example) quibble over the exact definition of "chair". Just because it's a hairy complicated subjective term subject to social a…

> A Swedish blonde ? yes Irish red-head ? yes A French brunette ? yes A Southern Italian ? yes A Lebanese ? no An Irianian ? no A Berber ? no A Morrocan ? no A Russian ? yes A Palestinian no, A Greek yes, A Turk no, An Arab ? no > You might quibble with a few of them but you might also (classic example) quibble over the exact definition of "chair". This is only the case if you substitute "white" with "European", whic…

Ya it's hard to be sure that when people express disdain and/or hatred of "white" people that they are or aren't including arabs. /rolleyes

Re: Google to pause Gemini image generation of people after issues

#858

Post by raydev »

multicast wrote: post #501

We live in times were non-problems are turned into problems. Simple responses should be generated truthfully. Truth which is present in today's data. Most software engineers and CEOs are white and male, almost all US rappers are black and male, most childminder and nurses are female from all kinds of races. If you want the person to be of another race or sex, add it to the prompt. If you want a software engineer from…

> Simple responses should be generated truthfully. Truth which is present in today's data.

Why would you rely on current LLM and -adjacent tech image generation to give you this? The whole point is to be creative and provide useful hallucinations.

We have existing sources that provide accurate and correct info in a deterministic way.

Re: Google to pause Gemini image generation of people after issues

#859

Post by cm2187 »

duxup wrote: post #783
sotasota wrote: post #759

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ever wondered what it was like to live during the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, well, we are living in the Western version of that right now. You don't speak out during the revolution for fear of being ostracized, fired, and forced into a struggle session where your character and reputation is publicly destroyed to send a clear message to everyone else. Shut Up Or Else. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go…

I think we're a ways from the severity of the Cultural Revolution.

Agree but we are pretty much spot on in woke mccarthyism territory, which used to be widely understood as a bad thing.

Re: Google to pause Gemini image generation of people after issues

#860

Post by smsm42 »

logicalmonster wrote: post #596

Personally speaking, this is a blaring neon warning sign of institutional rot within Google where shrieking concerns about DEI have surpassed a focus on quality results. Investors in Google (of which I am NOT one) should consider if this is the mark of a company on the upswing or downslide. If the focus of Google's technology is identity rather than reality, it is inevitable that they will be surpassed.

We are talking about the company that when a shooting happened in 2018, banned all the goods containing substring "gun" (including Burgundy wines, of course), from their shopping portal. They're so big nobody feels like they need to care about anything making sense anymore.
Post reply on HN