Google engineer James Damore was fired on August 7, 2017 for writing a memo criticizing the company’s diversity initiatives.

From Jul 1, 2017 until Sep 1, 2017 (a period covering the pre- and post-kerfuffle over his “insensitivity”) Google’s stock price appreciated considerably.

On Jul 1, 2017 the stock (still trading under the symbol GOOG) opened at $45.61.

On Sep 1, 2017, the stock opened at $47.06.

One conclusion is that James Damore’s anti-diversity comments didn’t hurt the bottom line, as reflected by market-pricing mechanisms.

On 22 Feb, 2024, media outlets widely distributed reports about Google Gemini’s woke tendencies.  The AI image generator part of the Gemini program portrayed our Founding Fathers as Black, and the Pope as either Black or female.

It was so difficult to get Gemini to render White people that even country music fans and pallid Vikings were given extra melanin pigments.

From Feb 1, 2024 to Feb 28, 2024 (a period covering the pre-and post/ongoing Gemini kerfuffle) Alphabet’s (Google’s) price depreciated considerably.

On Feb 1, 2024, the stock opened at $143.69.

On Feb 28, 2024, the stock opened at $139.10.

That may not sound like much, but it represents a loss of billions of dollars.  And that price decline occurred while most tech stocks, especially those with an inkling of AI in their services, soared to record highs.

In contrast to more responsive companies, CEO Sunar Pichai hasn’t engaged in public relations much, or issued a contrite press release.  However, he just sent out a memo to Alphabet employees stating, in part, “Some of its [Gemini] responses have offended our users and shown bias -- to be clear, that’s unacceptable and we got it wrong…”

Well, if it’s so unacceptable given the financial and reputational impacts, where is the accountability?  The Chief People Officer who’s supposed to impose DEI is still on the job, despite the bias Pichai concedes.  Jack Krawczyk, a project lead, appears to be still on the job.  At a minimum, no one has been humiliated as publicly as James Damore suffered.

I suspect that if Gemini demonstrated White Privilege, Jack would lose his crown and come tumbling down -- for all to see.

Given the rude way Damore was treated -- he was fired remotely -- the company’s “don’t be evil” ethos might confer similar treatment for those responsible for Gemini’s “unacceptable” anti-White racism.  The equity they preach -- but don’t practice -- might prompt “we don’t recognize your password” messages beside the login prompts on their company devices.

Oh, I almost forgot:  Google’s updated motto is “Be evil.”

Image: Google