Elon Musk Hints at Plans for an Unbiased Search Engine, Email Service to Rival Google

SpaceX and X owner Elon Musk has taken aim at Google following the controversy over its AI image generator, Gemini. The image generator was generating historically inaccurate images of Vikings, American founding fathers and other significant white figures and groups as non-white, prompting an apology and pause from Google.

“The problem is not just Google Gemini, it’s Google search too,” Musk wrote in an X post shortly after the image generator was paused. The post was referencing Google’s “frequently asked questions” page, where the tech giant admits that its search engine is engineered to create “equity” and prevent “algorithmic unfairness.”

“In some cases, it may be appropriate to take no action if the system accurately affects current reality, while in other cases it may be desirable to consider how we might help society reach a more fair and equitable state, via either product intervention or broader corporate social responsibility efforts,” Google explains.

https://twitter.com/eyeslasho/status/1760723124616659003

In another X post, Musk stated that Google “overplayed their hand” with Gemini.

“I’m glad that Google overplayed their hand with their AI image generation, as it made their insane racist, anti-civilizational programming clear to all,” he wrote.

Musk has frequently criticized Google, Facebook and other major social networks for meddling with algorithms and shadow banning undesirable content, meaning that posts will be hidden and suppressed. In 2023, 63 percent of articles featured in Google News came from left-wing news sites, while right-wing outlets were featured just 6 percent of the time.

For all search terms except “immigration,” stories aggregated from progressive outlets accounted for over half of the results, the media company AllSides found in its latest bias analysis.

“Out of curiosity, I looked at the Google news page. The so-called “news” either misses the point or is flat out wrong,” Musk said of Google’s news page back in December. “One is left depressed and misled.”

In response to Google’s bias, Musk teased plans for a rival search engine and email service that will not include pre-programmed racial biases in results. “It’s coming,” Musk said of his plans for “XMail” when asked by an X user.

The tech mogul has long expressed plans to evolve X from being just a social media site into an “everything app” that includes payment processing, shopping and much more. Such apps have gained popularity in China and other emerging markets around the world, though a similar company has not yet emerged in the United States.

It is unclear whether “XMail” and Musk’s planned search engine would be integrated into X.

BREAKING: Elon Musk says he’s creating XMail, an alternative to Gmail.

Will you use this over Google? pic.twitter.com/IAQZRPkIBm

— TaraBull (@TaraBull808) February 23, 2024