Google's Gemini chatbot issue: Will Sundar Pichai resign? ‘He is running amok'

Google's Gemini chatbot issue: Google shut down Gemini's human image generation capabilities while Sundar Pichai called the mistake “completely unacceptable”.

Amid controversy over Google's AI chatbot Gemini which was accused of being “racist” as it refused to generate images of white people and portraying historical figures who were originally white as people of colour, CEO Sundar Pichai is facing calls to resign. Google shut down Gemini's human image generation capabilities while Sundar Pichai called the mistake “completely unacceptable”. But demands for his resignation increased as per a Business Insider report.

Sundar Pichai resignation: Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., is seen. (Bloomberg)

Analysts Ben Thompson and Mark Shmulik said that things at Google needed to change, including possibly replacing CEO Sundar Pichai, as per the report. Ben Thompson said that there is also a need to address past issues while Mark Shmulik asserted that Sundar Pichai may not be suitable for guiding Google in the future.

Ben Thompson said that Google needed a "transformation" that would "mean removing those who let the former run amok, up to and including CEO Sundar Pichai."

Mark Shmulik in a note wrote, "The most recent saga only further raises increasingly louder questions around whether this is the right management team to guide Google into this next era."

This comes as Google's Gemini was called out by several users for generating historically inaccurate images and accused of being "too woke", "racist" and producing wrong details about “white people”.

Google responded to the complaints saying, “While we do this, we’re going to pause the image generation of people and will re-release an improved version soon” while Sundar Pichai said that the company “got it wrong” and is working on a solution.