The 2024 Summer Olympics have been inundated with advertisements from tech giants touting their latest AI tools, but their tone-deaf approach has left viewers unimpressed and concerned.
Vox reports that as the world tunes in to watch the best athletes compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics, they are also being bombarded with advertisements from the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Meta, all showcasing their latest AI tools. These ads, meant to highlight the potential of AI to enhance and empower our lives, have instead come across as tone-deaf and insensitive to the growing concerns surrounding the technology.
One particularly egregious example is Google’s “Dear Sydney” ad, which features a father using the company’s Gemini AI to generate a fan letter for his daughter to send to American Olympic hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. The ad has been widely criticized for suggesting that AI can replace genuine human emotion and connection. As tech consultant Shelly Palmer put it, “‘Dear Sydney’ was one of the most disturbing commercials I’ve ever seen.”
Google eventually pulled the ad from NBCUniversal’s coverage, but the damage was already done. The incident highlights a broader issue with the AI industry’s marketing tactics, which often boast about the technology’s ability to render meaningful human activities obsolete. This approach is particularly concerning given the widespread fears over how AI could replace jobs and make existing ones worse.
The tone of these AI ads is reminiscent of the crypto and Web3 advertisements that dominated the 2022 Super Bowl. Both industries have heralded their respective technologies as the next great innovation that will make humans hyper-productive and rich. However, just as the crypto bubble burst following a massive downturn in prices and scandals, there are signs that the AI bubble may be on the verge of bursting as well.
The extraordinarily high cost of running AI models, coupled with the fact that the technology is an environmental disaster, using up as much energy as an entire small country, raises serious questions about its viability and practicality. Yet, the IOC and NBC have embraced AI wholeheartedly, using it for everything from sportscaster voice generation to crowd surveillance.
As viewers are bombarded with sparkle emojis and taglines about AI being a superpower in the palm of their hands, they are left wondering how this technology will actually benefit their lives. The AI industry’s failure to highlight how its products can assist with practical tasks, such as household chores, and instead focusing on interfering with job prospects, privacy, and uniquely human experiences, only confirms the public’s worst fears about the technology.
Read more at Vox here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.