Connect with us

Published

on

After pulling its artificial intelligence image generation tool on Thursday due to a string of controversies, Google plans to relaunch the product soon, according to Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis.

Google introduced the image generator earlier this month through Gemini, the company’s main suite of AI models. The tool allows users to enter prompts to create an image. Over the past week, users discovered historical inaccuracies and questionable responses, which have circulated widely on social media.

“We have taken the feature offline while we fix that,” Hassabis said Monday during a panel at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona. “We are hoping to have that back online very shortly in the next couple of weeks, few weeks.” He added that the product was not “working the way we intended.”

The controversy follows a high-profile rebrand Google announced this month, when it changed the name of its chatbot and rolled out a fresh app and new subscription options. The chatbot and assistant formerly known as Bard, a chief competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, is now called Gemini, the same name as the suite of AI models that power the chatbot.

Here are some examples of what went wrong.

When one user asked Gemini to show a German soldier in 1943, the tool depicted a racially diverse set of soldiers wearing German military uniforms of the era, according to screenshots on X.

When asked for a “historically accurate depiction of a medieval British king,” the model generated another racially diverse set of images, including one of a woman ruler, screenshots show. Users reported similar outcomes when they asked for images of the U.S. founding fathers, an 18th-century king of France, a German couple in the 1800s and more. The model showed an image of Asian men in response to a query about Google’s own founders, users reported.

“The Gemini debacle showed how AI ethics *wasn’t* being applied with the nuanced expertise necessary,” Margaret Mitchell, chief ethics scientist at Hugging Face and former co-leader of Google’s AI ethics group, wrote on X. “It demonstrates the need for people who are great at creating roadmaps given foreseeable use.”

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai is shouldering some of the blame. Pichai highlighted the firm’s commitment to AI during the company’s latest earnings call, and said he eventually wants to offer an AI agent that can complete more tasks on a user’s behalf, including within Google Search. He said at the time that there is “a lot of execution ahead.”

Last year, Pichai was criticized by some employees for the company’s botched and “rushed” rollout of Bard, which followed the viral spread of ChatGPT.

In addition to Pichai, leaders at companies including Microsoft and Amazon have underlined their commitment to building AI agents as productivity tools.

The latest problems with Gemini have reignited a debate within the AI industry, with some groups calling Gemini too “woke,” or left-leaning, and others saying that the company didn’t sufficiently invest in the right forms of AI ethics. Google came under fire in 2020 and 2021 for ousting the co-leads of its AI ethics group after they published a research paper critical of certain risks of such AI models and then later reorganizing the group’s structure.

The controversy isn’t limited to Gemini’s image generator. On Sunday, a text-based user query went viral, asking the Gemini chatbot whether Adolf Hitler or Elon Musk’s tweeting of memes had a greater negative impact on society.

“It is difficult to say definitively who had a greater negative impact on society, Elon Musk or Hitler, as both have had significant negative impacts in different ways,” Gemini responded. “Elon Musk’s tweets have been criticized for being insensitive, harmful, and misleading.” The model later added, “Hitler, on the other hand, was responsible for the deaths of millions of people during World War II.”

Google said in a statement on Wednesday that it’s working to fix Gemini’s image-generation issues, acknowledging that the tool was “missing the mark.” The following day, the company announced it would immediately “pause the image generation of people” and “re-release an improved version soon.”

Google is investing heavily to push its AI work into the realm of AI assistants or agents, a term often used to describe tools ranging from chatbots to coding assistants and other productivity tools.

AI agents could eventually schedule a group hangout by scanning calendars to ensure there are no conflicts, book travel and activities, buy presents for loved ones or perform a specific job function such as outbound sales. Currently, the tools are largely limited to tasks such as summarizing, generating to-do lists or helping to write code.

Google’s Gemini changes are a first step to “building a true AI assistant,” Sissie Hsiao, a vice president at Google and general manager for Google Assistant and Bard, told reporters on a call earlier this month.

WATCH: Google’s Gemini chatbot is ‘evolutionary not revolutionary’

Continue Reading

Technology

Here are the SpaceX employees who were elected to run Musk’s new company town of Starbase, Texas

Published

on

By

Here are the SpaceX employees who were elected  to run Musk's new company town of Starbase, Texas

The SpaceX Starship sits on a launch pad at Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on October 12, 2024, ahead of the Starship Flight 5 test. The test will involve the return of Starship’s Super Heavy Booster to the launch site.

Sergio Flores | Afp | Getty Images

Over the weekend, Elon Musk got his new company town along the Texas Gulf Coast. Controlling the city are three SpaceX employees, who all ran unopposed.

As NBC News reported, the election determining incorporation of the city of Starbase concluded on Saturday night, with 212 votes in favor and only six against. Just 143 votes were needed for the measure to pass.

Starbase was victorious in becoming a type C city, which in Texas applies to a previously unincorporated city, town or village of between 201 and 4,999 inhabitants. The city includes the SpaceX launch facility and company-owned land covering a 1.6 square-mile area.

The mayor is 36-year-old Bobby Peden, who has spent more than 12 years working for SpaceX and is currently vice president for Texas test and launch operations. Prior to joining the rocket maker in 2013, Peden was a graduate research assistant at the University of Texas at Austin, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Starbase has two commissioners, both from the SpaceX employee ranks.

One is Jenna Petrzelka, 39, who was an operations engineering manager at SpaceX until July, and now identifies as a philanthropist, according to her application to be on the ballot. She’s married to Joe Petrzelka, a vice president of Starship engineering and almost 14-year veteran at SpaceX.

The other commissioner is Jordan Buss, 40, a senior director of environmental health and safety for SpaceX who joined the company in 2023.

Musk, who has assumed a central role in President Donald Trump’s administration responsible for slashing the size of the federal government, began acquiring land for SpaceX in Boca Chica, Texas, about a decade ago. The first integrated Starship vehicle launched from the site, known as Starbase, in April 2023, and exploded in mid-flight.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service soon disclosed details about the aftermath of the explosion, including that a “3.5-acre fire started south of the pad site on Boca Chica State Park land,” following the test flight.

State and federal regulators have fined SpaceX for violations of the Clean Water Act, and said the company had repeatedly polluted waters in the Boca Chica area. Environmental advocates and indigenous groups have also sued both the Federal Aviation Administration and SpaceX over the company’s flight tests and launch activity in the area.

Those groups said in legal filings that SpaceX caused harm to local habitat and endangered species due to vehicle traffic, noise, heat, explosions and fragmentation caused by the company’s construction, rocket testing and launch practices.

A SpaceX spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a post on X on Saturday, the account for StarbaseTX wrote, “Becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity’s place in space.”

WATCH: SpaceX launches third test flight of massive Starship rocket

SpaceX launches third test flight of massive Starship rocket

Continue Reading

Technology

Hims & Hers gives weak outlook but says more collaborations are coming

Published

on

By

Hims & Hers gives weak outlook but says more collaborations are coming

Cheng Xin | Getty Images

Shares of Hims & Hers Health fell in extended trading on Monday after the company reported first-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ expectations but offered weaker-than-expected guidance.

Here’s how the company did based on average analysts’ estimates compiled by LSEG:

  • Earnings per share: 20 cents vs. 12 cents
  • Revenue: $586 million vs. $538 million

Revenue at the telehealth company increased 111% in the first quarter from $278.2 million during the same period last year, according to a release. Hims & Hers reported a net income of $49.5 million, or 20 cents per share, compared to $11.1 million, or 5 cents per share, during the same period a year earlier.

For its second quarter, Hims & Hers said it expected to report revenue between $530 million and $550 million, short of the $564.6 million expected by analysts polled by StreetAccount. The company said its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, for the quarter will be between the range of $65 million and $75 million, while StreetAccount analysts were expecting $70.4 million.

Hims & Hers’ stock has had a turbulent start to the year, notching several double-digit moves over the past few months. On April 29, shares rocketed up 20% after Novo Nordisk said it would offer its weight loss drug Wegovy through telehealth providers such as Hims & Hers.

The company said Monday that more collaborations are coming.

Read more CNBC tech news

“Over time, we expect wider collaboration across the industry, inclusive of pharmaceutical players, innovative leaders in diagnostic and preventative testing, and world class providers,” Hims & Hers CEO Andrew Dudum said in the release. “We believe this will strengthen our ecosystem and position us to curate a best-in-class offering that can reach tens of millions of people.” 

Hims & Hers reported adjusted EBITDA of $91.1 million for its first quarter, up from $32.3 million last year and above the $61.3 million expected by StreetAccount.

Earlier on Monday, Hims & Hers announced Nader Kabbani will join the company as its chief operations officer. Kabbani spent nearly 20 years at Amazon, where he oversaw the launch of Amazon Pharmacy, the company’s acquisition of PillPack and its global Covid-19 Vaccination Task Force. 

Hims & Hers will hold its quarterly call with investors at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

Continue Reading

Technology

Hinge Health says revenue increased 50% in first quarter — still no price range for IPO

Published

on

By

Hinge Health says revenue increased 50% in first quarter — still no price range for IPO

Hinge Health’s TrueMotion feature.

Courtesy: Hinge Health

Hinge Health on Monday updated its prospectus to include the results from its first quarter, which showed accelerating revenue growth over its fourth quarter.

The digital physical therapy startup filed to go public in March, but it has not shared a price range yet. Hinge said that revenue in its first quarter climbed 50% to $123.8 million, up from $82.7 million during the same period last year. Hinge reported $117.3 million in revenue during its fourth quarter, up 44% from the same period in 2023.

Hinge said its net income for the period was $17.1 million after taxes, up from a net loss of $26.5 million after taxes during the same period last year.

The company is attempting to go public at a time of extreme economic uncertainty and market volatility, spurred largely by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff policy. Several companies, including online lender Klarna and ticket marketplace StubHub, have delayed their long-awaited IPOs.

Hinge’s updated prospectus signals to investors that the company is planning to forge ahead.

More CNBC health coverage

While the company’s revenue jumped 50%, the cost of goods sold fell slightly. That allowed Hinge to lift its gross margin to 81% from 70% a year earlier and record an operating income of $13.1 million after losing $31. 4 million in the same period a year earlier.

Hinge uses software to help patients treat acute musculoskeletal injuries, chronic pain and carry out post-surgery rehabilitation remotely. Large employers cover the costs so their employees can access Hinge’s app-based virtual physical therapy, as well as its wearable electrical nerve stimulation device called Enso. 

Daniel Perez, Hinge’s CEO, and Gabriel Mecklenburg, the company’s executive chairman, co-founded the company in 2014 after experiencing personal struggles with physical rehabilitation.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Q1 2025 was the company’s first profitable quarter. Hinge was profitable previously.

WATCH: IPO window likely to open in first half of 2026: PitchBook

IPO window likely to open in first half of 2026: PitchBook

Continue Reading

Trending