Google’s Gemini AI Olympics-themed ad sparks fierce backlash
Google’s Olympics-themed advertisement for its Gemini AI product, called “Dear Sydney,” isn’t exactly winning over viewers.
The ad features a young female runner whose father narrates the commercial. She wants to write a letter to her hero, American track and field star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, so her dad enlists Gemini AI to help.
“She wants to show Sydney some love and I’m pretty good with words, but this has to be just right,” the girl’s father says.
He then gives the AI product the following prompt: “Help my daughter write a letter telling Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone how inspiring she is and be sure to mention that my daughter plans on breaking her world record … one day. (She says, sorry, not sorry).”
The chatbot ad quickly sparked backlash, including online criticism that relying too heavily on generative AI tools deprives children of learning opportunities.
Why didn’t she write it herself?
The public’s objections to the ad included queries about why the little girl didn’t write the letter herself, or with her dad’s assistance. In fact, it appears in the ad that the McLaughlin-Levrone fan herself has nothing at all to do with the writing of the draft of the letter Google’s Gemini AI delivers.
“The father in the video is not encouraging his daughter to learn to express herself,” Shelly Palmer, media professor at Syracuse University, wrote in a blog post entitled “Why Google’s ‘Dear Sydney’ Ad Makes Me Want to Scream.”
She said society’s overreliance on generative AI text tools could have a sweeping effect on how young people learn to communicate, and in turn eliminate much of the individuality that is expressed through language.
“If this approach to communication becomes widespread — and Google is saying it will work hard to make it so — it will lead to a future dominated by homogenized modes of expression, a monocultural future where we see fewer and fewer examples of original human thoughts. As more and more people rely on AI to generate their content, it is easy to imagine a future where the richness of human language and culture erode,” Palmer wrote.
Others took even fiercer aim at the spot.
“This ad makes me want to throw a sledgehammer into the television every time I see it,” Washington Post humorist and opinion columnist Alexandra Petri said.
Google defended the ad, released in partnership with Team USA, and reiterated that the company does not view AI-generated text as a substitute for human words.
“We believe that AI can be a great tool for enhancing human creativity, but can never replace it,” Google said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch. “Our goal was to create an authentic story celebrating Team USA. It showcases a real-life track enthusiast and her father, and aims to show how the Gemini app can provide a starting point, thought starter, or early draft for someone looking for ideas for their writing.”
McLaughlin-Levrone shared the ad on her personal Instagram account last week.”This is for everyone watching Team USA compete and thinking, that’s gonna be me someday,” she captioned the post.
Instagram user @susieewegh weighed in on the post, writing, “I love Sydney and I love the spirit of this ad, but ‘let’s use AI to draft a letter for my kid instead of having them write it’? Really? Are we not teaching kids to communicate for themselves anymore?”
All manner of writers have expressed concern at AI’s potential takeover of their jobs. The threat to people who rely on their words to pay the bills was thrust into the spotlight during the 2023 Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) strike. A big sticking point between writers and studios was over the use of generative AI to create and rewrite scripts. Ultimately, the parties reached an agreement under which writers get to determine how they use generative AI, if at all, to assist them.
