The first time I saw Google's latest commercial, I thought, “Am I the only one who thinks this is kind of off-putting?” By the fourth or fifth time, I no longer wondered.
It starts off with the father talking about how much his daughter loves Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (she's “probably the biggest Sydney fan in the world”), and then it turns out the daughter wants to write a fan letter to the Olympic gold medalist and needs her dad's help. And things just take a turn from there.
Yes, this is a commercial for Google's Gemini AI, so the dad urges Gemini to “help my daughter write a letter telling Sydney how much she inspires her. Make sure to mention that she's going to break a world record one day. (She says “sorry,” but never “sorry.”)”
If you squint your eyes, you can see how this fits into the overall selling point of generative AI: it's supposed to be a writing coach or assistant, especially useful for people who find writing difficult or intimidating. What's scarier than writing a fan letter to your favorite athlete?
But I can't think of a more heartfelt way to convey emotion than instructing an AI to tell someone how touched it is. Of course, Gemini is just generating a first draft that father and daughter will (hopefully?) personalize, but in reality, all it'll do is result in a pile of nearly identical letters.
Linda Holmes, novelist and host of the podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, put it even more emphatically: “Obviously, some people have special circumstances and need help, but this is a terrible, general 'She's amazing without even writing anything herself!' story. Who wants fan mail written by an AI?”
Additionally, Holmes points out, “Fan letters are a great way for kids to learn to write. How are they going to learn if we encourage them to run to an AI and spit words out at them because they're not good at writing yet?”
I agree. Sadly, I'll never be an Olympian, but believe it or not, even tech bloggers rarely (very rarely) receive compliments. I'd much rather receive a short “You're awesome!!” email written by a human than a detailed, canned letter written by an AI.
None of this comes close to Apple cramming every achievement of humanity into an iPad, but it does suggest there are some challenges to selling AI as useful to the general public.