A Google release of latest updates to its Gemini generative AI product was overshadowed by reports the company had become the latest US tech giant to ditch diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals to pander to the nation’s new President.
The Wall Street Journal led the way, reporting Google told staff it planned to drop recruitment targets involving groups which traditionally were not well represented.
Google also intends to appraise some elements of its DEI programmes, the newspaper wrote.
Forbes explained Google told staff about the move yesterday (5 February), outlining an intention to continue to support “underrepresented staff”, while reconsidering its stance on broader DEI programmes and reporting.
In a video accompanying Google’s 2024 Diversity Annual Report, chief diversity officer Melonie Parker argued the company had learned “making space for diverse perspectives and experiences is inseparable from innovation”.
The report summarised Google’s work in 2023, its 25th anniversary year and one in which Parker said it doubled its efforts to create “a workplace where everyone feels supported”.
“At Google, we’ve seen how the best of technology empowers people of all backgrounds.”
Parker highlighted the creation of “equitable pathways in tech education”, increasing “access to technology” and backing of organisations which advanced “equity in their neighbourhoods and the world beyond them”.
Gemini 2.0
Details of Google’s DEI move broke the same day it advanced development of its Gemini 2.0 Flash agentic AI model by making it widely available through its related API in its various developer studios.
Koray Kavukcuoglu, CTO of Google DeepMind, stated in a blog the release means developers “can now build production applications” using the model, with availability coming two months after the company released an experimental edition.
Google also released an experimental version of its related coding performance and complex prompts model Gemini 2.0 Pro, along with previewing a slimline version of its Flash product which Kavukcuoglu described as its “most cost-efficient model yet”.
Source: Mobile World Live
