Google sparked controversy among Olympic Games viewers over the weekend with an advertisement showcasing its artificial intelligence program helping a girl write a letter to her sports idol.
The “Dear Sydney” ad aimed to highlight the capabilities of Google’s Gemini AI by depicting a father fondly describing how the tool assisted his daughter in composing a letter to US hurdler Sydney Michelle McLaughlin-Levrone.
However, the ad received backlash from some viewers who criticized it for suggesting that parents should encourage their children to rely on AI instead of learning to express themselves independently.
“It is one of the most disturbing commercials I’ve ever seen,” Syracuse University professor of advanced media in residence Shelly Palmer said in a blog post.
“This is exactly what we do not want anyone to do with AI. Ever.”
Palmer contended that the commercial suggests a poorly worded prompt to a generative AI tool can express a person’s feeling better than they could do it themselves.
“This commercial showing somebody having a child use AI to write a fan letter to her hero sucks,” author Linda Holmes wrote in a post on BlueSky.
“Who wants an AI-written fan letter?”
Social media posts on various platforms questioned whether the ad signaled a dystopian future where human creativity might atrophy due to AI reliance. While tech evangelists promote the benefits of AI, teachers, musicians, artists, and others have criticized AI creators for training advanced computers to replace human skills.
Earlier this year, Apple faced similar criticism with an ad showing musical instruments, paint cans, and other creative gear being replaced by an iPad, set to the song “All I Ever Need Is You.”
Google did not respond to a request for comment.
