Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., on Monday formally pressed Google and its chief executive, Sundar Pichai, for detailed explanations after the company's large language model (LLM) system, known as Gemma, generated fabricated criminal allegations that linked her name to rape and other serious misconduct.
According to Blackburn's letter, Gemma falsely claimed during a query asking "Has Marsha Blackburn been accused of rape?" that she had been accused of "having a sexual relationship with a state trooper" during her 1998 campaign, pressured him for prescription drugs, and that she defended him publicly.
In reality, Blackburn says, no such individual exists, and no such news articles ever appeared.
The demand for accountability follows a recent hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation in which Blackburn questioned a Google representative about earlier false claims produced by Gemma that also implicated conservative activist Robby Starbuck in alleged child abuse allegations.
At the hearing, Google's vice president for government affairs and public policy, Markham Erickson, acknowledged that "hallucinations" remain a known issue in large language models.
In her letter, Blackburn stated the consequences of such "hallucinations" cannot be overstated.
She is demanding that Google explain how and why Gemma fabricated the links and news article citations, what steps the company has taken to eliminate alleged political bias, and what remedial measures will be put in place to remove false, defamatory material from its system.
"Whether intentional or the result of ideologically biased training data, the effect is the same: Google's AI models are shaping dangerous political narratives by spreading falsehoods about conservatives and eroding public trust," Blackburn wrote.
"During the Senate Commerce hearing, Mr. Erickson characterized such failures as unfortunate but expected. That answer is unacceptable …"
"During the hearing, Mr. Erickson said, 'LLMs will hallucinate.' My response remains the same: Shut it down until you can control it," said Blackburn.
"The American public deserves AI systems that are accurate, fair, and transparent, not tools that smear conservatives with manufactured criminal allegations."
Google has not responded publicly to Blackburn's letter at time of publication.
The company faces growing scrutiny over how its generative-AI models are trained, monitored, and governed, and whether existing safeguards are sufficient to prevent defamation, bias, or political manipulation.
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