Opposition mounts wave of criticism over president's Gemini response

Controversy spawns viral meme as lawmakers post their own AI queries

President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting held at Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday. [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting held at Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday. [Yonhap]

A wave of opposition lawmakers posting their own Gemini AI queries has taken on the character of a viral meme, after President Lee Jae Myung used the generative AI tool to push back against criticism over the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency chief's attendance at a Cabinet meeting.

The opposition has kept up its attacks since Lee cited a Gemini response Wednesday to argue that objections to the agency chief's presence at the Cabinet meeting amounted to "unconstitutional sophistry."

People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok said Thursday at a supreme council meeting that "President Lee Jae Myung now seems to have trouble finding even friends to take his side," adding, "He has gone so far as to make Gemini his friend."

Jang said, "Is this really the time for the president to be clinging to Gemini?" He said housing prices are surging and the jeonse and monthly rent market is in turmoil, leaving ordinary citizens gasping, while the president appears entirely at ease.

People Power Party lawmaker Yun Sang-hyun also weighed in Wednesday via social media, asking whether Lee intended to turn to Gemini for answers every time the public raised concerns about how the country was being run. "If so, ask Gemini about real estate, youth employment, and the low birth rate and aging population as well," he said.

Yun added that using AI as a reference tool in governance was an entirely different matter from citing it as grounds to rebut public concern. "What the president should be listening to right now is the voice of the people," he said.

Lawmaker Na Kyung-won was equally scathing, saying Lee had fed Gemini a biased question to get a biased answer and then posted it online. "Is this how he has been running the country?" she said.

Na added, "The president is consulting Gemini rather than the Constitution and the law to make governing decisions? It's beyond belief."

Reform Party lawmaker Lee Jun-seok called the episode "absurd," saying the president had begun citing Gemini as the basis for his governance.

Lee Jun-seok went further, saying that if the president was going to govern by asking Gemini, the country might as well replace the president with Gemini. "It has no legal risk, no criminal record, doesn't swear, and holds no mortgage liens — it's a superior version in every way," he said.

Some lawmakers turned the controversy into a meme by posting Gemini responses of their own. Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon said he had asked Gemini whether President Lee should ultimately stand trial, and that Gemini had said he should. "President Lee, a devoted Gemini believer, should follow what Gemini says and face his own trials — on the North Korea remittance case, the election law case, and the rest," Han said.

People Power Party lawmaker Ju Jin-woo also shared a Gemini response, quoting it as saying the president must not release his own accomplices, must not block citizens' access to social media, and must not play golf like an emperor during a national disaster.


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