Michelle ThompsonGoogle has withdrawn its controversial Olympics advertisement following criticism over its portrayal of artificial intelligence. The ad featured a father using Google’s Gemini AI chatbot to help his daughter write a fan letter to U.S. Olympic track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. Critics argued that the ad undermined a child’s creativity by substituting it with computer-generated text.
Initially, Google defended the ad, which aired during Olympic breaks, as an illustration of how Gemini could offer a “starting point” for writing. However, after receiving significant feedback, the company decided to remove the ad from its Olympics lineup. A Google spokesperson stated that despite the ad’s positive pre-airing tests, the company chose to phase it out based on public response.
This incident highlights ongoing concerns about AI potentially displacing jobs in creative fields like writing, music, and art. Apple experienced similar backlash earlier this year with an ad showing human symbols of creativity being crushed by a hydraulic press and replaced by an iPad Pro. Apple quickly apologized for the ad, acknowledging that it missed the mark.
