Google Gemini executive removes social media accounts after product launch

Jack Krawczyk, Google head of artificial intelligence product, has stepped down 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 bullying.

Krawczyk, who is usually active on social media, where he is known to seek feedback from users and praise Google products and colleagues, has removed identifying information and made some accounts private. Krawczyk’s official title is senior director of product management for Gemini, the company’s core group of AI models.

Despite lowering his public profile, Krawczyk is still committed to work on Gemini products and has the same title, according to sources familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak on the matter.

Earlier this month, Google launched an AI image generator through Gemini. The tool allows users to enter prompts to create an image, similar to how text services such as ChatGPT produce complex answers and responses from queries.

In the days following the image system’s release, users discovered historical inaccuracies that went viral online. Google responded by pulling the feature last week, with plans to release it again in the coming weeks.

Just before the company removed the product, Krawczyk was the first Google leader to write to Xsaying, “We are aware that Gemini offers inaccuracies in some images to generate historical images and we are working to correct this immediately.”

On Tuesday, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai sent a memo to employees calling Gemini’s image generation issues “problematic” and saying they “offended our users” and “showed bias,” adding that the situation was ” totally unacceptable”.

By then, Krawczyk had taken much of the heat reports resumed some of his old posts. Critics claimed, without evidence, that he had “anti-white” agendas and included images of Krawczyk in his posts and replies. X CEO Elon Musk, who frequently attacks Google’s business, intensifies those votes on his platform, singling out Krawczyk.

Krawczyk has since removed his images, as well as any identifying information, from social media platforms.

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