Google pulls Gemini AI ad from Olympics after backlash

| Updated on 7 August 2024

Google has pulled an ad from NBC’s Olympics broadcasts that was supposed to showcase the power of Gemini AI to the world. 

The new Gemini AI ad has been criticized by many viewers on social media for its delivery. 

In the 60-second ad titled “Dear Sydney,” a father wants to help his daughter write a letter to her idol, Olympic superstar Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. The voiceover father tells us that his daughter is the no. 1 fan of the athlete. The problem is not with writing a fan letter, he should have helped his daughter to write a fan letter. Instead, he asked Gemini to write a fan letter for them. 

He says, “This has to be just right” before prompting Gemini to tell Sydney how inspiring she is and that his daughter will break her record one day. In the end, he also asks the Gemini to add a “Sorry, not sorry” joke as well. 

You can watch the ad here. 

As soon as the ad started running on TV, it faced backlash from users. Many of them have written extensively on social media about it. 

Some users are calling Google about completely missing the point of writing a fan letter. A fan letter is a heart-to-heart conversation between a fan and the star, where a fan expresses how much your hero’s work has inspired your life and so on. According to users, no one would want to write a fan letter with the help of Gamini AI.

Some users pointed out that the ad encourages people to take the easy way out instead of practicing self-expressing. 

Google acknowledged the negative feedback and came out in support of the ad. They said that the ad wasn’t meant to imply that Gemini could replace humans. 

According to Google, the ad was meant to “show how the Gemini app can provide a starting point, thought starter, or early draft for someone looking for ideas for their writing.”

Gaurav Pal

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