Google tried to capture some Olympic excitement in its Gemini chatbot, which the company said was “fully tested prior to airing.” But when it first aired, the ad alienated viewers by making artificial intelligence appear a weak substitute for parenting and human creativity.
The negative reaction to “Dear Sydney,” about a father who uses Gemini to help his daughter write fan letters, was so intense that Google decided to phase the show out from television.
“Our goal was to tell an authentic story that celebrates Team USA,” the tech giant told CNBC. But after receiving feedback from viewers, Google said it has “made the decision to phase this ad out of our Olympic rotation.” The ad is still running on YouTube, but comments have been turned off.
The ad features a father and his daughter, who has “always been a runner,” and admires American hurdler and sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. “She wants to show Sydney some love, and I’m great with words, but it has to be just right,” a fatherly voice explains. The father then asks Gemini for help drafting a fan letter to McLaughlin-Levrone, before Eve’s “Who’s That Girl” cuts in. (Eve’s publisher, Universal Music Group, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the story.) Then glittering graphics spin and a Google chatbot drafts the letter. The ad ends with the tagline, “A little help from Gemini.”
Many people hated it! “This commercial, which uses AI to get kids to write fan letters to their heroes, is the worst,” NPR pop culture podcast host Linda Holmes wrote on social media site BlueSky. “The whole thing is gross,” she said. A Washington Post columnist wrote that the commercial made her “want to throw a sledgehammer at the TV.” The commercial also drew criticism from the Daddit group on Reddit, with some users calling it “gross” and “dehumanizing.”
In an essay, Shelley Palmer, an advanced media professor at Syracuse University’s School of Communication, argued that the ad exaggerates Gemini’s capabilities and sends the wrong message to parents. “Google is trying to convince us that this little girl doesn’t need to learn to verbalize or explain her reality,” Palmer wrote. “This is criminally negligent.”
The ad also appeared on Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s Instagram a week ago. “Do you really want to receive a letter generated by an AI?” one user asked. Some commenters had more positive reactions. “This brought me to tears,” one user said.[N]”There’s no one else to look up to,” another user replied. Nevertheless, Google pulled the ad.
Another tech giant’s recent ad also ended up disappointing. In May, Apple drew the ire of some when it tried to celebrate the role of technology in facilitating human creativity. The company’s “Crush” ad featured an industrial crusher slowly pulverizing a collection of creative objects, including numerous paint buckets, a piano, several books, and a sculpture. When the crusher lifts off, it leaves an iPad in its horrifying wake.
