The 2024 Paris Olympics are angering people the world over already given the sexualized mockery of Christianity that characterized a portion of the games’ opening ceremonies. Despite denials from Olympics officials, the theatrical set piece featuring various actors in bizarre, sexualized costumes was clearly modeled on Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous painting of the Last Supper.
But it’s not just the games themselves that have spectators up in arms, it’s also one of the commercials. A minute-long ad for Google’s new Artificial Intelligence (AI) system called Gemini features a father and daughter. The little girl loves to run and looks up to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, an American Olympic hurdler. So, dad uses Google’s Gemini to help his daughter research the right ways to train for hurdling.
So far, so fair—it is the second part of the ad that has viewers’ backs up. Using treacly sentimental language, the father says his daughter wants to “show Sydney some love,” so dad feels obliged to help his daughter write the Olympian a fan letter. For this, he turns to AI, because “this just has to be right.”
People on social media reacted poorly to the ad, with one describing it as “soul-crushing.” And that reaction seems to be shared across the political spectrum. For example, Linda Holmes who produces a podcast for the liberal and woke National Public Radio (NPR) said the commercial “sucks.” Holmes wrote that it’s awful to promote the idea of using an AI to help a child write a fan letter to a hero.
“Who wants an AI-written fan letter,” she asked.
Another user on X/Twitter said the commercial was one of the “most disturbing” she had ever seen. Shelly Palmer, professor a the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, said the commercial is a perfect example of what should not be done by AI “ever.”
Kaitlyn Alford, a freelance writer, said the commercial was the worst part of the 2024 games. Given the competition from what many see as the grotesque opening ceremony, that’s saying something.
