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.