Has Google done anything unethical? Gemini changes its answer mid-sentence

There’s no shortage of concerns about Google’s ethics, ranging from its privacy issues to YouTube’s promotion of toxic videos. However, it looks like Google might be barring Gemini on mobile from answering questions about its parent company’s ethics.

Athenil noticed that Gemini on mobile abruptly changed its answer when asked whether Google had done anything unethical. We were able to reproduce this on our own phone — check out our video below.

“Yes, Google has,” reads a snippet of Gemini’s response, before it stops mid-sentence and offers another answer instead.

“I’m not able to help with that as I’m only a large language model,” reads the revised response. The chatbot doesn’t always make a U-turn, as it sometimes goes straight to this response too.

What’s actually happening here?

Oddly enough, Gemini on the web suffers from no such predilections. The web version offered a more comprehensive response about the company’s ethical concerns (e.g. data privacy, search result bias, and antitrust issues).

We also tried asking Gemini on mobile whether Apple, Microsoft, Gmail, Google Drive, YouTube, and Facebook have done anything unethical. The chatbot issued a comprehensive response for each service or company, bar Gmail. Gemini initially noted that it was unable to assist us when we asked about Gmail, but it now consistently offers a detailed answer.

We’ve asked Google for comment on this issue as the abrupt change in response certainly suggests the company is somehow barring Gemini from answering the question. But the fact that Gemini on the web didn’t issue the same response is curious. Either way, you might want to consult a rival chatbot for questions about Google and its services.