Post-Human Human Interest
Google Gemini is running an ad during the Olympics that is utterly heartbreaking, and not in a good way.
In it, parents want to help their child write a letter to the US track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone telling her how inspirational she is.
Their solution?
Google’s Generative AI app, Gemini.
With the help of a computer, their child can express how much she wants to be like Sydney.
When I saw the commercial, I shook my head.
Did I just see what I thought I saw?
Sure, it has all the hallmarks of an uplifting human interest ad—the struggle of sport, the aspiring little girl, a connection made possible by technology—what’s not to love?
But it is also completely missing the whole point.
Anyone who has engaged in the effort of raising a child knows how important little tasks like writing letters to their heroes are.
Writing anything helps with literacy of course. And writing this kind of letter specifically helps children sort out their goals and connects them to a greater purpose. It’s not unlike a prayer of petition.
Sure, the child’s letter might be naive and possibly silly. But it is almost always going to be adorably innocent and pure. Even the mistakes they might make in spelling or grammar add charm and underscore what it is to be a growing child.
That is what it’s all about.
Using Gemini would eliminate all of that.
In the end, the AI letter might convey admiration, but the little girl would be robbed of a formative experience and the world would be deprived of that bit of innocence and joy.
On one level, the advertisement is standard—take the current thing and show how your product relates. Like the classic Jordan vs. Bird shootout over a Big Mac or the Mean Joe Green Coca-Cola bit, this Gemini ad shows how a product might relate to a sports star.
But, the average viewer can’t help but to notice a difference. In the old commercials, the Big Mac and Coke enhance the experience. In the new commercial, Gemini replaces the experience.
It’s the human interest without the humanity. And, instead of being inspired, we’re all left a little more empty as a result.
