It is Olympic season and a lot is happening during that time, in addition to the matches of course. Now, Google has found itself in the middle of a controversy. Why, you ask? It is because of a recent advertisement that rolled out for Gemini which was aired in the US for the Paris Olympics 2024. The advertisement has now been removed but it received a lot of criticism online. Google accepted the criticism and acknowledged it publicly.
The video featured a father’s monologue about his daughter’s admiration for the US track athlete Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. The girl in the ad wants to break the athlete’s record and wants to write her a letter expressing her inspiration. This monologue is a prompt for Gemini AI, which then generates the fan letter.
As soon as they went on air on July 26, it quickly faced criticism on social media. Several users questioned the authenticity of a letter not personally written by the fan. A lot of people say that it undermines genuine human connections. Others felt that this ad just blatantly devalues the emotional aspect of personal communication.
Google was quick to accept the mistake, in a statement sent to Variety, the company said, “While the ad tested well before airing, given the feedback, we have decided to phase the ad out of our Olympics rotation.” Despite this, Google defended the ad’s creative intention, stating, “We believe that AI can be a great tool for enhancing human creativity, but can never replace it. Our goal was to create an authentic story celebrating Team USA.”
Google is the official “Search AI Partner” of Team USA during the Paris Olympics 2024. So this backlash might hamper that equation.