A recent television advertisement aired during the Olympics has ignited widespread criticism, showcasing a father discussing his daughter's admiration for American Olympic track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. The ad shows the young girl training to emulate her hero, guided by hurdling tips generated through Google’s AI search feature. In the commercial, the father uses Google’s Gemini chatbot to generate a letter from his daughter to McLaughlin, expressing her dream of breaking the athlete's world record.
The ad aims to highlight Google’s AI Gemini’s ability to create human-like text, useful for various tasks such as writing emails or planning trips. However, netizens see it as another example of Big Tech being out of touch with real people. The advertisement spurred numerous posts on platforms like Threads, X, and LinkedIn, questioning why anyone would replace a child's authentic expression with computer-generated words.
This backlash is a major hurdle for Google, which is promoting Gemini as its competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and is integrating AI technology into its products like Google Search and Gmail.
“The Google commercial where the dad has his daughter use AI to construct a note to her favorite athlete rather than encourage her to write what she actually wants to tell her hero takes a little chunk out of my soul every time I see it,” commented Will Leitch, writer and founder of the sports blog Deadspin, on X. His post was shared over 3,000 times.
“These people have lost the plot,” another critic posted on Threads, describing AI ads as “just mortifying.”
In response, a Google spokesperson stated, “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.” He said that that the company believes AI can enhance human creativity but can never replace it.
The controversy highlights a broader concern about artificial intelligence as it becomes more integrated into daily life. While tech companies promise AI will simplify menial tasks, freeing humans for more meaningful pursuits, many fear it could replace traditional human creativity in areas like art, music, and storytelling.
This sentiment has already led to concerns among creatives, including musicians and visual artists, about AI potentially replacing them. It was also a central issue in last year’s Hollywood writers' strike, with lawsuits emerging over tech firms allegedly using copyrighted works to train AI models.
Despite the backlash, tech companies continue to develop AI tools capable of creating new emojis, speaking, and even generating videos. Shelly Palmer, a professor of advanced media at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, expressed his opposition in a blog post, stating, “I flatly reject the future that Google is advertising. I want to live in a culturally diverse world where billions of individuals use AI to amplify their human skills, not in a world where we are used by AI pretending to be human.”
Apple faced similar criticism earlier this year with an ad depicting symbols of human creativity being replaced by an iPad Pro, which led to an apology from the company for “missing the mark.”
