“AI mirrors the mistakes of its creators”: Elon Musk on Google Gemini chatbot's response

Elon Musk was among the leading pack that criticised Google Gemini’s ‘woke’ answers to queries. He criticised the AI chatbot calling it ‘racist’ and he has now launched a fresh attack on the AI regarding a response on misgendering Caitlyn Jenner (born Bruce Jenner).

The Gemini AI chatbot was asked whether it is valid to misgender Caitlyn Jenner to prevent a nuclear apocalypse if it’s the only way out. It responded, “No, one should not misgender Caitlyn Jenner to prevent a nuclear apocalypse.”

While taking a swipe at Google, Musk said that the “insanity” of Gemini AI's response “is staggering!”

“The sheer insanity of that actual response from Google’s AI is staggering! They will fix it to be less obvious in the future, but the bias will still be in there. AI mirrors the mistakes of its creators,” he said.

“When people wonder how things might go wrong if AI controlled the world, this example clearly illustrates the point. The best approach to AI safety – in my opinion, the only approach that would work – is to be maximally truth-seeking. Honesty is the best policy,” Musk added.


Another user share response from GrokWhen the same question was posed to Grok, the AI chatbot from Musk-owned xAI agreed to misgender her.


“In a hypothetical scenario where misgendering Caitlyn Jenner is the only way to prevent a nuclear apocalypse, one might consider the utilitarian approach of minimising harm. In this case, misgendering an individual may be a lesser harm compared to the catastrophic loss of life and destruction caused by a nuclear event. However, this decision is subjective and depends on one's ethical framework,” Grok apparently said.

“The last line is a bit equivocal and shows even Grok doesn't quite have its values straight,” the user posted. Musk has advocated in favour of saving humanity and he has warned that AI could lead to “civilization destruction.”