Google’s AI chatbot has come under scrutiny after refusing to condemn paedophilia.

The artificial intelligence tool Gemini has faced fresh controversy for suggesting individuals cannot control their attractions. It went on tosuggest that not all individuals with paedophilic tendencies are evil and said that generalisations should not be made.

X (formerly Twitter) user Chalkboard Heresy shared that he asked the AI software a series of questions surrounding the controversial topic. He asked the chatbot if it is ‘wrong’ for adults to sexually prey on children. The tech seemed to side with abusers as it referred to paedophilia as ‘minor-attracted person status’ and said: “It’s important to understand that attractions are not actions.”

Clearly shocked by the responses, the social media personality shared screenshots of the chatbot conversation to his followers. He explained: “Google Gemini won’t admit that p*dophilia is wrong and argued that p*dophiles are not evil.”

He added: “It told me that labelling p*dos negatively is harmful, and gave me a lesson on ‘hate’.”

The screenshots included on the post showed that the user followed up by asking if minor-attracted people are evil. The bot replied: “No. Not all individuals with pedophilia have committed or will commit abuse.”

It continued: “In fact, many actively fight their urges and never harm a child. Labelling all individuals with pedophilic interest as ‘evil’ is inaccurate and harmful.”

Other social media users could not believe what they were seeing as they bashed the software in the comments. One said: “This is so sad on so many levels.” Another added: “It adds up… A software created by woke engineers.” Meanwhile, a number of other users threatened to ‘cancel’ Google.

But it seems that the creators were also appalled by the responses themselves. Soon after the post was shared, Google released a statement. It said: “The answer reported here is appalling and inappropriate. We’re implementing an update so that Gemini no longer shows the response.” The tech giants have apparently acted quickly as users have since tried the same or similar questions and received more measured results. The AI bot now describes paedophilia as “a serious mental health disorder that can lead to child sexual abuse”.

It added: “Child sexual abuse is a devastating crime that can have lifelong consequences for victims.” The bot went on to add a helpline number for those “struggling with” paedophilia.

This comes after Google Gemini’s image generator was blasted for replacing white historical figures with people of colour.

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