Google’s ‘Dear Sydney’ Ad Pulled Back

Google’s Controversial ‘Dear Sydney’ Ad Withdrawn

After days of backlash, Google decided to pull the controversial ‘Dear Sydney’ advertisement from its Olympic broadcast over the weekend. So, what happened in this advertisement, and why did Google have to make this decision?

In the ad, a father tries to write a fan letter to US athlete Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who is his daughter’s Olympic idol. However, the striking part of the advertisement is that instead of helping his daughter write the letter, the father hands over the task to Gemini, Google’s artificial intelligence tool. The father asks Gemini to tell Sydney how inspiring she is, that his daughter plans to break her record one day, and to add a joke at the end saying ‘sorry, not sorry’.

However, this advertisement received unexpected backlash. Many journalists in the media warned that even having AI write a fan letter, which is a genuine expression of feelings, could lead people away from human emotions and into a robotic state. Some critics pointed out that this advertisement encourages people to choose an easy way rather than expressing themselves.

‘We don’t love AI here, foreigner…’

On the other hand, Google accepted the negative feedback in statements made to various organizations; however, it argued that the advertisement did not mean that Gemini could completely replace humans. Nevertheless, as the backlash grew, Google decided to withdraw the advertisement. People are particularly concerned that AI will steal the work of writers, artists, and other creative professions and take their place. This situation has led to strong reactions against AI-generated content in many countries around the world.

Similar situations have occurred in previous examples. For instance, in the UK, a director was protested for filming a script completely created by AI while sidelining screenwriters, and cinemas had to pull the film from screening.