Google confirmed on Friday that it has decided to pull an ad for its Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) after receiving negative feedback from Olympics viewers. The ad, titled “Dear Sydney,” aimed to showcase the capabilities of Gemini AI by featuring a father who used the tool to write a fan letter from his daughter to US hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. However, some viewers criticized the ad, arguing that it promoted the idea of parents encouraging their children to rely on AI instead of learning to express themselves.
A Google spokesperson informed AFP that although the ad had tested well before airing, the company has chosen to phase it out of its Olympics rotation due to the backlash. Social media platforms were flooded with posts questioning whether the ad hinted at a dystopian future where human creativity diminishes due to AI. Shelly Palmer, a media professor at Syracuse University, expressed concern that the commercial implied that a poorly worded prompt to a generative AI tool could better express someone’s feelings than they could themselves.
Author Linda Holmes voiced her discontent with the ad, stating in a post on BlueSky, “This commercial showing somebody having a child use AI to write a fan letter to her hero sucks. Who wants an AI-written fan letter?” While tech evangelists have extolled the potential benefits of AI, critics, including teachers, musicians, artists, and others, have accused its creators of training advanced computers to replace human professionals.
Earlier this year, Apple faced a similar stumble with an ad that depicted musical instruments, paint cans, and other creative tools being crushed and replaced by an iPad, accompanied by a song titled “All I Ever Need Is You.”