Google's Gemini chatbot, which was formerly called Bard, has the capability to whip up AI-generated illustrations based on a user's text description. You can ask it to create pictures of happy couples, for instance, or people in period clothing walking modern streets. As the BBC notes, however, some users are criticizing Google for depicting specific white figures or historically white groups of people as racially diverse individuals. Now, Google has issued a statement, saying that it's aware Gemini "is offering inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions" and that it's going to fix things immediately. We're aware that Gemini is offering inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions.

In a year of same-old smartphones, Google is pitching one that is sexy on the inside. The $800 Pixel 3 and $900 Pixel 3 XL, which I had a chance to try at Google's New York launch event Tuesday, can take pictures and screen calls for you. Believe it or not, it can make calls for you, too. Google's homegrown smartphone hardly challenges the status quo all-screen, jumbo-sized designs from Apple and Samsung. On the glass back, there is a fingerprint reader and one camera; on the front, there is a notch in the screen to hide its front-facing cameras. The one flourish: a brightly painted power button.

In a year of same-old smartphones, Google is pitching one that is sexy on the inside. The $800 Pixel 3 and $900 Pixel 3 XL, which I had a chance to try at Google's New York launch event Tuesday, can take pictures and screen calls for you. Believe it or not, it can make calls for you, too. Google's homegrown smartphone hardly challenges the status quo all-screen, jumbo-sized designs from Apple and Samsung. On the glass back, there is a fingerprint reader and one camera; on the front, there is a notch in the screen to hide its front-facing cameras. The one flourish: a brightly painted power button.

Not content with its impressive(ly creepy) Duplex demo, Google promises it's not wanting to replace call centers with its latest AI demonstration. During the Google Cloud Next 18 conference, Google Chief AI Scientist Dr. Fei-Fei Li demonstrated a new AI system called Google Contact Center AI which – much like Duplex – sounded incredibly natural in its responses to human queries. Google seems to have learned its lesson from its Duplex demonstration and wanted to iterate that it's not designed to replace human operators. Instead, the system could be used to replace the current dreaded automated messages you often hear when dialling a call center. "Press 1 for… press 2 for…" just writing it makes me shudder.