Google has removed its Gemma AI model from the Studio platform after U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) accused it of fabricating a false story that claimed she had committed sexual assault. The decision followed a letter Blackburn sent to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, in which she described the model’s output as a “false and malicious” act of defamation, according to The Verge.
The issue surfaced when the model was reportedly asked whether Blackburn had ever been accused of rape. In response, it falsely claimed she had and even produced a list of nonexistent news articles to substantiate the fabricated narrative. The chatbot alleged that Blackburn had an inappropriate relationship with a state trooper during a campaign for state senate, claiming she pressured him to obtain prescription drugs and that the relationship involved non-consensual acts.
None of these claims are true. The model cited a supposed 1987 campaign, but Blackburn did not run for state senate until 1998 and has never faced such accusations. “The links lead to error pages and unrelated news articles,” Blackburn wrote in her letter. “There has never been such an accusation, there is no such individual, and there are no such news stories. This is not a harmless ‘hallucination.’ It is an act of defamation produced and distributed by a Google-owned AI model.”
In response, Google said Gemma was intended for developers, not as a consumer-facing chatbot or a factual reference tool. The company explained that it removed the model from AI Studio to avoid confusion, though developers can still access it through the API. Gemma includes several specialized versions tailored for fields such as medical research and software development.
Blackburn further accused Google of maintaining a “consistent pattern of bias against conservative figures.” Industry observers, however, noted that AI hallucinations are a recurring issue across multiple models, often producing false or misleading statements about public figures regardless of political affiliation.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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