Google Gemini product lead retreats from social media after troubled AI product launch led to harassment
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Jack Krawczyk, a Google artificial intelligence product lead, has pulled away from social media sites, including X and LinkedIn, after the troubled launch of the company’s AI image generator made him the target of online harassment.
Krawczyk, who is typically active on social media, where he’s known to solicit user feedback and to praise Google products and colleagues, removed identifying information and made some accounts private. Krawczyk’s official title is senior director of product management for Gemini, the company’s main group of AI models.
Though he’s lowering his public profile, Krawczyk is still engaged in the work on Gemini products and has the same title, according to sources with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named in order to speak on the issue.
Earlier this month, Google launched an AI image generator through Gemini. The tool allowed users to enter prompts to create an image, similar to how text-based services such as ChatGPT produce sophisticated responses and answers from inquiries.
In the days following the release of the image engine, users discovered historical inaccuracies that went viral online. Google responded by pulling the feature last week, with plans to relaunch it in the coming weeks.
Just before the company removed the product, Krawczyk was the first Google leader to write on X, saying, “We are aware that Gemini is offering inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions, and we are working to fix this immediately.”
On Tuesday, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai sent a memo to employees that called Gemini’s image generation issues “problematic,” and said they “have offended our users” and “showed bias,” adding that the situation was “completely unacceptable.”
By then, Krawczyk had taken much of the heat as reports resurfaced some of his old posts. Critics claimed, without evidence, that he had an “anti-white” agenda and included images of Krawczyk in their posts and responses. X CEO Elon Musk, who has frequently attacked Google’s business, amplified those voices on his platform, singling out Krawczyk.
Krawczyk has since removed images of himself as well as any identifying information from social media platforms.
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Okta on Tuesday topped Wall Street’s third-quarter estimates and issued an upbeat outlook, but shares fell as the company did not provide guidance for fiscal 2027.
Shares of the identity management provider fell more than 3% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
Here’s how the company did versus LSEG estimates:
- Earnings per share: 82 cents adjusted vs. 76 cents expected
- Revenue: $742 million vs. $730 million expected
Compared to previous third-quarter reports, Okta refrained from offering preliminary guidance for the upcoming fiscal year. Finance chief Brett Tighe cited seasonality in the fourth quarter, and said providing guidance would require “some conservatism.”
Okta released a capability that allows businesses to build AI agents and automate tasks during the third quarter.
CEO Todd McKinnon told CNBC that upside from AI agents haven’t been fully baked into results and could exceed Okta’s core total addressable market over the next five years.
“It’s not in the results yet, but we’re investing, and we’re capitalizing on the opportunity like it will be a big part of the future,” he said in a Tuesday interview.
Revenues increased almost 12% from $665 million in the year-ago period. Net income increased 169% to $43 million, or 24 cents per share, from $16 million, or breakeven, a year ago. Subscription revenues grew 11% to $724 million, ahead of a $715 million estimate.
For the current quarter, the cybersecurity company expects revenues between $748 million and $750 million and adjusted earnings of 84 cents to 85 cents per share. Analysts forecast $738 million in revenues and EPS of 84 cents for the fourth quarter.
Returning performance obligations, or the company’s subscription backlog, rose 17% from a year ago to $4.29 billion and surpassed a $4.17 billion estimate from StreetAccount.
This year has been a blockbuster period for cybersecurity companies, with major acquisition deals from the likes of Palo Alto Networks and Google and a raft of new initial public offerings from the sector.
Okta shares have gained about 4% this year.
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