Google's AI image generator, part of the Gemini app, has been withdrawn after complaints that it supported 'blacking up'.
Many images that should be white are generated as black.
It turns out that the Google coders tasked with training the AI belonged to an internal group known as 'The 192nd Street Doo-Dah Shoeshine Band' which is why the Gemini image generator had been trained on 'Black and White Minstrels' shows and pictures of Al Jolson.
According to The Spectator, even America's founding fathers were not averse to a little blacking up themselves according to images generated by Gemini.
A spokesperson for Gemini's sponsor, a well-known shoe polish brand, told FNN:
We have not used our sponsorship to influence the AI results although it is very gratifying to note that many of the images generated have clearly used our product to 'black up' including Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring.
But we are happy that sales of our black and tan shoe polishes are rocketing now that 'blacking up' has become the latest online craze.
A spokesperson for the AI industry commented:
That an innocently-intentioned AI could, in just a few months, become such an online pariah solely due to blacking up, is one of the most extraordinary episodes in AI history.
George Mitchell was unavailable for comment.