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Google has pulled its Olympic-themed ad for its generative artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, Gemini, after it drew some backlash.
In the “Dear Sydney” ad, Gemini generates a letter for a dad helping his daughter write to Olympic gold medal hurdler, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. The father prompts Gemini to: “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.)”
Those who didn’t appreciate the ad noted how cold an actual AI-generated fan letter would be. Linda Holmes, the host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, wrote on Bluesky: “Obviously there are special circumstances and people who need help, but as a general ‘look how cool, she didn’t even have to write anything herself!’ story, it SUCKS. Who wants an AI-written fan letter??”
Meanwhile, members of the Daddit subreddit on Reddit seemed to share the sentiment, with some calling the ad “disgusting” and “tone deaf” for taking creativity and personality out of communication, and for depicting a parent too lazy to teach their child how to write.
“While the ad tested well before airing, given the feedback, we have decided to phase the ad out of our Olympics rotation,” a Google spokesperson told MarketWatch on Friday. AdAge was the first to report the ad had been pulled from air — it is still up on YouTube with the comments turned off.
The news comes as Google tries to leverage the Olympics to promote Gemini.
The tech giant has partnered with NBCUniversal and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Google is Team USA’s official search AI partner, the sports non-profit’s first ever collaboration with a tech company.
Throughout the Olympics, commentators on NBC have been using Google’s Gemini AI to enhance (or at least attempt to enhance) their coverage.
- Britney Nguyen contributed to this report.