Google Says It Fixed Image Generator That Failed to Depict White People

In February, Google faced a backlash from users who realized its A.I. chatbot Gemini was unable to reliably create images of white people. To quell the controversy, the company shut down Gemini’s ability to depict any human.

On Wednesday, Google began turning the feature back on for users who pay to use the English-language version of the chatbot, Gemini Advanced, the company said in a blog post. The company also said it would incorporate the latest version of its image generator, Imagen 3, into the chatbot.

The updates are an attempt at a redo for a company that has staked its future on artificial intelligence but has frequently failed to stick the landing with its A.I. products.

“With Imagen 3, we’ve made significant progress in providing a better user experience when generating images of people,” Dave Citron, a Google senior director, wrote in a blog post. The service will be set not to depict photorealistic images of public figures, minors or violent imagery, he added.

Weeks after Gemini was launched, users noticed that it would not show white individuals. When asked to depict U.S. founding fathers and Catholic popes, for example, it depicted women and men of various races.

Besides sparking controversy, the revelation eroded confidence in Google’s ability to manage artificial intelligence capabilities. The company had also stumbled with the initial launch of its chatbot Bard, which got a fact wrong in one of its first public outings. The Bard gaffe was an embarrassing moment just as the A.I. boom was starting to take off.

Critics of Google latched on to the problems with Gemini. Elon Musk, the owner of the social media service X, said on his platform that Google’s A.I. “is so racist & sexist.” A range of social media users echoed his remarks as Google vowed to fix the technology.

Besides incorporating the new version of Imagen into Gemini, Google announced that its corporate customers could start creating so-called Gems, which are customized versions of Gemini that can be used as a coding partner, learning coach or writing editor.

The company reminded users that even with improvements, its technology would make errors.

“Of course, not every image Gemini creates will be perfect,” Mr. Citron wrote, “but we’ll continue to listen to feedback from early access Gemini Advanced users as we keep improving.”