Overview
- Sen. Marsha Blackburn told CEO Sundar Pichai that Gemma fabricated a rape allegation about her and cited non-existent news links, calling the output defamation.
- Google announced that Gemma is no longer available in the AI Studio web interface after reports of non-developers using it for factual questions, but the models remain accessible via API.
- Blackburn’s letter details that the model falsely tied her to a 1987 state senate campaign and a state trooper, assertions she said are entirely untrue, including the wrong election year.
- At a recent Senate Commerce hearing, Google policy executive Markham Erickson acknowledged that hallucinations are a known issue and said the company is working to mitigate them.
- Blackburn referenced conservative activist Robby Starbuck’s defamation lawsuit over similar outputs and set a November 6 deadline for Google’s written explanation and corrective steps.