Tech Desk 
Jul 29, 2024
The recent Gemini commercial feels like a bit of a shortfall, as it does start on a good note, borrowing the occasion of the Paris Olympics, but fails to hold it till the end.
The ad features a dad and his daughter teaming up to compose a letter for Olympic gold medalist Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone, just so the daughter can get in touch with the athlete to let her know how inspirational she’s been.
The father-daughter duo end up using Gemini with the following prompt: “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.)”
Read more: Paris Olympics 2024: Broadcasters’ diverse AI approach
The problem is not that Gemini is bad at doing its job. It’s fairly good. What’s so bothersome is that the advert tries to persuade the viewer that replacing heartfelt gestures with generative AI is a good idea for a media campaign.
Novelist and Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast host Linda Holmes put it more emphatically. “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??” she wrote.
“A fan letter is a great way for a kid to learn to write! If you encourage kids to run to AI to spit out words because their writing isn’t great yet, how are they supposed to learn?” she added.
If everyone began doing the same, people would end up receiving stacks of letters with repetitive language, with code behind them and no heart.
