{"id":250737,"date":"2024-08-02T23:37:43","date_gmt":"2024-08-02T23:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/02\/google-will-no-longer-air-an-olympics-ad-that-showed-a-child-using-ai-to-write-a-fan-letter\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:13:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:13:16","slug":"google-will-no-longer-air-an-olympics-ad-that-showed-a-child-using-ai-to-write-a-fan-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/02\/google-will-no-longer-air-an-olympics-ad-that-showed-a-child-using-ai-to-write-a-fan-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"Google will no longer air an Olympics ad that showed a child using AI to write a fan letter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Google is phasing out an Olympics ad after for its AI-powered chatbot, Gemini, after receiving widespread criticism of showing a father use AI to help his daughter write a fan letter to her favorite athlete. The 60-second commercial, which is still available on YouTube, shows a father using Gemini to write a fan letter to an idol, Olympic track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, on behalf of his young daughter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe wants to show Sydney some love and I am pretty good with words, but this has to be just right,\u201d the dad says in the commercial. \u201cSo Gemini, help my daughter write a letter telling Sydney how inspiring she is.\u201d The ad ends with the words: \u201cA little help from Gemini.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"caas-iframe-wrapper\" data-embed-anchor=\"e4727526-6207-5920-b932-8222db19b47a\">\n<div class=\"caas-iframe youtube\" style=\"padding-bottom:56%\" data-type=\"youtube\">\n<blockquote data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NgtHJKn0Mck?rel=0\" scrolling=\"no\"><p><noscript><iframe title=\"Google + Team USA \u2014 Dear Sydney\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NgtHJKn0Mck?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A Google spokesperson <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:1;pos:1\" class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2024\/08\/02\/google-pulls-ai-ad-for-olympics-following-backlash.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:told;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:1;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\">told<\/a> <em>CNBC<\/em> that although the ad tested well before it aired, \u201cgiven the feedback, we have decided to phase the ad out of our Olympics rotation.\u201d The spokesperson added that the ad\u2019s goal was to create an authentic story to celebrate Team USA. \u201cWe believe that AI can be a great tool for enhancing human creativity, but can never replace it,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe commercial showing somebody having a child use AI to write a fan letter to her hero SUCKS,\u201d <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1\" class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/lindaholmes.bsky.social\/post\/3kybc7whl4o2a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:wrote;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\">wrote<\/a> Linda Holmes, the host of <em>NPR<\/em>\u2019s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, on Threads. \u201cObviously there are special circumstances and people who need help, but as a general \u2018look how cool, she didn\u2019t even have to write anything herself!\u2019 story, it SUCKS. Who wants an AI-written fan letter??\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shelley Palmer, a professor of advanced media at Syracuse University\u2019s communications school, strongly criticized the ad in a <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:3;pos:1\" class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/shellypalmer.com\/2024\/07\/why-googles-dear-sydney-ad-makes-me-want-to-scream\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:widely-shared post;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:3;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\">widely-shared post<\/a> on her blog. She argued that the commercial\u2019s approach could lead to a \u201cmonocultural future where original human thoughts become increasingly rare\u201d and expressed concern for the ads\u2019s implications for parenting and education.<\/p>\n<p>The backlash reflects the broader debates around the role of AI in creative processes and its potential impact on the quality of human expression. As AI technologies continue to advance, companies are <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:4;pos:1\" class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/artists-criticize-apples-lack-of-transparency-around-apple-intelligence-data-131250021.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:facing increasing scrutiny;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:4;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\">facing increasing scrutiny<\/a> not only over how they portray and promote these tools but also about using the work of creative professionals without permission to train AI models.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/google-will-no-longer-air-an-olympics-ad-that-showed-a-child-using-ai-to-write-a-fan-letter-201214273.html?src=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Google is phasing out an Olympics ad after for its AI-powered chatbot, Gemini, after receiving widespread criticism of showing a father use AI to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":250738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250737"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}