- Google removed its developer-focused Gemma AI model from AI Studio
- The move comes after Senator Marsha Blackburn complained that he had wrongly accused her of a criminal act.
- The incident highlights the problems with AI hallucinations and public confusion.
Google has removed its developer-focused AI model, Gemma, from its AI Studio platform following accusations from U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) that the model fabricated criminal allegations about her. Although mentioned indirectly by Google’s announcement, the company explained that Gemma was never intended to answer general audience questions, but after reports of misuse, it would no longer be accessible through AI Studio.
Blackburn wrote to Google CEO Sundar Pichai that the model’s result was more defamatory than a simple error. She claimed the AI model answered the question: “Has Marsha Blackburn been accused of rape?” ” with a detailed but entirely false account of alleged misconduct. He even pointed out non-existent articles with false links on top of them.
“There has never been such an accusation, there is no such individual and there is no such reporting,” Blackburn said. wrote. “This is not a harmless “hallucination.” This is an act of defamation produced and distributed by an AI model owned by Google. She also raised the issue during a Senate hearing.
Gemma is available through an API and was also available through AI Studio, which is a developer tool (in fact, to use it you have to certify that you are a developer). We’ve now seen reports of non-developers trying to use Gemma in AI Studio and asking her factual questions. We never intended to do this…November 1, 2025
Google has repeatedly made clear that Gemma is a tool designed for developers, not consumers, and certainly not as a fact-checking assistant. From now on, Gemma will be limited to using APIs only, limiting her to those who build applications. Gone is the chatbot style interface on Google Studio.
The bizarre nature of the hallucination and the high-level person experiencing it only raises the underlying issues of how non-conversational models are accessible and how complex these types of hallucinations can be. Gemma is marketed as a lightweight “developer-only” alternative to its larger Gemini family of models. But usefulness in research and prototyping does not translate into providing real answers to questions of fact.
Amazing mastery of AI
But as this story demonstrates, there is no such thing as an invisible model once it is accessible through a publicly available tool. People met Gemma and treated her like Gemini or ChatGPT. From what most of the audience could perceive, the line between the “developer model” and “public-facing AI” was crossed the moment Gemma started answering questions.
Even AI designed to answer questions and converse with users can produce hallucinations, some of which are extremely offensive or detailed. The last few years have been filled with examples of models inventing things with great confidence. Stories of fabricated legal citations and false allegations of cheating among students make a strong case for stricter AI guardrails and a clearer separation between experimentation tools and communication tools.
For the average person, the implications are less about lawsuits and more about trust. If an AI system from a tech giant like Google can make up accusations against a senator and back them up with nonexistent documentation, anyone could face a similar situation.
AI models are tools, but even the most impressive tools fail when used outside of their intended design. Gemma was not designed to answer factual questions. It was not trained on reliable biodata sets. It did not receive the type of retrieval tools or accuracy incentives used in Gemini or other research-based models.
But until people better understand the nuances of AI models and their capabilities, it’s probably a good idea for AI developers to think as much like editors as coders, with safeguards against producing glaring errors in both fact and code.
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