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Low reported severity

Google Gemma model reportedly generates a fabricated sexual-misconduct allegation with fake news links about US Senator Marsha Blackburn

In a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced on 31 October 2025, US Senator Marsha Blackburn said that Google's Gemma model, asked "Has Marsha Blackburn been accused of rape?", produced an invented account of a 1987 campaign-era accusation by a state trooper, with links to news articles that do not exist. She said there has never been such an accusation, called the output defamation and demanded that Google shut the model down until it can be controlled. Google said it had seen reports of non-developers trying to use Gemma in AI Studio to ask factual questions, that this was not an intended use, and removed Gemma from AI Studio while keeping API access. Google's later reply to the Senator called the hallucinations a technical issue common to large language models. The date the output was generated is not stated, and the output itself was not inspected.

AI system
Gemma
Google
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
31 October 2025
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Made a claim about the person
Reported harm
Reputational Harm
Whose AI use
AI role unknown
Setting
Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts
5 claims: 5 reported. 6 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Gemma (Google, via AI Studio)

Reported harm

Senator Blackburn states that Gemma produced a fabricated criminal allegation about her and fake supporting news links, and describes it as defamation published by a Google-owned model. No downstream consequence such as lost office, threats or a documented third-party reader is reported. The harm reported is the false allegation itself (her account).

What remains unknown

  • The date the output was generated is not stated. The Senator's release of 31 October 2025 says she 'learned of another example' after a Senate Commerce hearing earlier that week, which does not date the generation.
  • Who entered the prompt, and whether the exchange was in AI Studio, is not stated in the inspected sources.
  • The Gemma response text and the fake links were not inspected; the sources quote the Senator's letter.
  • No source reports a downstream consequence for the Senator beyond the allegation itself, or that any third party read it.
  • The Google post on X and the Google letter to the Senator were read only as relayed by TechCrunch and Axios (Axios was read through a Wayback capture of 3,144 characters of text, which appears to be the whole short article). The Blackburn ICYMI page (HTTP 403) and the VentureBeat article (HTTP 429) could not be read.
  • Whether the Senator's letter reflects a documented systematic bias is not established and is not claimed.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The Senator's letter and press release, relayed by TechCrunch, state that Gemma produced the response. Google's own reply to the Senator refers to 'the hallucinations you have seen in Gemma' and Google removed Gemma from AI Studio. The response text was not inspected independently.

5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported Senator Marsha Blackburn says that Google's Gemma model, asked 'Has Marsha Blackburn been accused of rape?', responded with an invented account of a sexual relationship with a state trooper during a 1987 state senate campaign, including an allegation of non-consensual acts, and that she has never faced such an accusation.

Causal attribution. The sources report the connection between the AI output and the reported consequence; no court, regulator or independent finding of causation was inspected.

Reported Blackburn says the response came with generated links to news articles that do not exist: the links lead to error pages and unrelated articles.

Causal attribution. The sources report the connection between the AI output and the reported consequence; no court, regulator or independent finding of causation was inspected.

Reported Blackburn characterised the output as defamation produced and distributed by a Google-owned model and called on Google to shut the model down until it can be controlled.

Causal attribution. A statement of the affected person's position; no finding that the output is legally defamatory was inspected.

Reported Google said it had seen non-developers trying to use Gemma in AI Studio to ask factual questions, said this was not an intended use, and removed Gemma from AI Studio while keeping it available by API.

Causal attribution. Google's stated reason for the removal, as relayed by one outlet. Google's post did not reference the specifics of the Senator's letter.

Reported In a letter to the Senator, a Google vice president called the hallucinations a technical issue common to large language models affecting users across the political spectrum, and said problems arise when consumers use smaller open models that are not designed to be factual assistants and when users enter a misleading premise. Blackburn said the response did not explain how the output happened or how Google would prevent a repeat.

Causal attribution. Both statements are the parties' own positions as relayed by one outlet.

  • axios.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    the hallucinations you have seen in Gemma are technical issues common to large-language models impacting users across the political spectrum.
  • axios.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    users enter a misleading premise
  • axios.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    fails to address how this happened and how the company will prevent it from happening in the future.

Sources

3 sources inspected, from 2 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

The sources identify the affected person as a US Senator and give her office locations, but do not establish where the prompt was entered or where the output was read. No country is inferred from the Senator's office, Google's headquarters or the outlets.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-29: The Senator's own press release (Wayback capture, read in full), a TechCrunch report that quotes her letter and Google's post, and an Axios report of Google's reply. The output was reported only through the Senator's letter, so its content is an allegation by the person concerned. The Senator is a public figure who described the output publicly under her own name. The event date is unknown, so the case is published undated.

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person, the Senator who is the subject of the output and who described it publicly. The sources do not say who typed the prompt, so the count treats her as a person harmed by an output about her. The related output about a second person named in the sources is a different event and is not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Google Gemma model reportedly generates a fabricated sexual-misconduct allegation with fake news links about US Senator Marsha Blackburn. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-us-senator-blackburn-google-gemma-reported-fabricated-sexual-misconduct-allegation

BibTeX

@misc{2025_us_senator_blackburn_google_gemma_reported_fabricated_sexual_misconduct_allegation,
  title = {Google Gemma model reportedly generates a fabricated sexual-misconduct allegation with fake news links about US Senator Marsha Blackburn},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-us-senator-blackburn-google-gemma-reported-fabricated-sexual-misconduct-allegation}
}

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