Google is pulling an Olympics ad for its AI-powered chatbot Gemini after widespread criticism that showed a father using AI to help his daughter write a fan letter to her favorite athlete. The 60-second commercial, which is still available on YouTube, shows a father using Gemini to write a fan letter to an idol, Olympic track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levron, on behalf of his young daughter.
“He wants to show Sydney some love, and I’m pretty good with words, but it has to be right,” the dad says in the ad. “So, Gemini, help my daughter write a letter to Sydney telling her how inspiring she is.” The ad ends with the words, “A little help from Gemini.”
Google spokesperson he said CNBC Although the ad was tested well before airing, “given the feedback, we’ve decided to phase the ad out of our Olympics rotation.” The spokesperson added that the goal of the ad is to create an original story to celebrate Team USA. “We believe that artificial intelligence can be a great tool to enhance human creativity, but it can never replace it,” they said.
“An ad showing someone with a child using AI to write a fan letter to their hero SUCKS,” he wrote Linda Holmes, host NPR‘s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, on Threads. “Obviously there are special situations and people who need help, but like a general, ‘look how nice, he didn’t even have to write anything himself!’ The story, SUCKS. Who wants a fan letter written by artificial intelligence?
Shelley Palmer, an advanced media professor at Syracuse University’s school of communication, criticized the ad. widely shared post on his blog. He argued that the commercial’s approach could lead to “a monocultural future in which original human thought becomes increasingly rare” and expressed concern about the impact of advertising on parenting and education.
The reaction reflects the broader debate surrounding the role of artificial intelligence in creative processes and its potential impact on the quality of human expression. As AI technologies continue to evolve, so do companies faces increasing scrutiny not only in how they describe and promote these tools, but also in using the work of unauthorized creative professionals to train their AI models.
