The following report is by Business Insider:
- Google pulled an ad suggesting a young fan use Gemini AI to write to their Olympic idol.
- Google yanked the ad off of the airwaves after critics called it “horrifying.”
- The misfire came after criticism of an Apple ad suggesting an iPad can replace all human creativity.
Some Big Tech companies have recently made some questionable advertising choices.
Google faced backlash after it recently released an ad about a young athlete who idolizes American hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. The ad suggests the young girl should use Gemini AI, Google’s chatbot, to write to her idol instead of just speaking from the heart.
“This is for everyone watching #TeamUSA compete on the world’s stage and thinking, that’s gonna be me someday. You got this, with a little help from Gemini,” the ad’s caption says.
The ad is narrated by the girl’s father, who says that his daughter “wants to show Sydney some love, and I’m pretty good with words, but this has to be just right.”
“So Gemini, help my daughter write a letter telling Sydney 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 father says in the ad.
Unlike other videos on Google’s YouTube page, the comments for the ad are turned off.
On X, users called it “pretty horrifying.” One critic said it takes “99% of the ethos and feeling out of one of the most heartfelt concepts known to man.”
“It should be written by her own hand in the imperfect, pure language of childhood adoration…… this is just so sad to me,” the critic added.
A Google spokesperson told Business Insider it pulled the ad from circulation. “While the ad tested well before airing, given the feedback, we have decided to phase the ad out of our Olympics rotation,” the spokesperson said.
Apple faced similar backlash for an ad it unveiled earlier this year that shows the entire sum of human creativity — musical instruments, paints, sculpture, toys, chess, photography, and more — being crushed in a giant hydraulic press and then transforming into the “most powerful iPad ever.”
“The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley,” the actor Hugh Grant said on X, responding to the ad after its release.
The backlash to the ads is rooted in fears that technology, and in particular AI, could replace human creators. The threat AI poses to jobs in Hollywood was a key concern among striking writers last summer.
While some entertainment executives have tried to reassure alarmed creatives, others have embraced AI with open arms, adding to the concern.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
This is not an accident, as Business Insider would have you to believe; this is the hubris and arrogance of these tech giants coming through, so proud to showcase what their stupid inventions can do, but never stopped to realize the cost of creativity and skill, and the joy and satisfaction that comes from that.
Proverbs 26:16 The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.
Proverbs 15:19 The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain.
We’ve looked at so many instances already as to how AI has completely uprooted businesses, trades and crafts – and while just ordinary technology was already accomplishing this, AI will make this a thousand times worse.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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I see ads for AI all the time now. Everywhere I go, its AI this and AI that… and I’m getting REAL sick and tired of it. There are a LOT of things in our society now that scream “dystopian”, but I gotta say, artificial intelligence, especially at the level it’s at now, just about hits the top of the “dystopian” meter. Even Brave browser (a PRIVACY browser) has that stupid AI assistant “Leo” built in (albeit optional, but still). Going to try and distance myself from AI as much as possible, I don’t want ANYTHING to do with it.
And this is exactly the Jesuit Catholic way the intend to bring upon the nation’s their dark ages again. Where the new reset generations won’t be able to read or write anymore and be dictated to under Catholic communism. only they’ll fail miserably like never before.
Great point, you nailed it.