Gemini Ad Backlash

18 points by ai4ever 11 months ago | 12 comments
  • fullshark 11 months ago
    I can't recall a technological advancement that capital so badly wanted at labor's expense in my lifetime. There is a desperation to come up with consumer products powered by AI to get them on board, similar to how they got on board with cheap goods via offshore manufacturing, or telecommunication tools that facilitate "calling grandma" that lead to outsourcing.

    There really seems to be almost zero consumer products that people want powered by this stuff. Even chatGPT is mostly laborers trying to do their job more easily.

    • dartos 11 months ago
      I think it’s because of how expensive AI is to develop, how easy it is to sell the idea of a thinking machine (and the implications of having the first real AGI) to investors, and how thirsty tech is for another platform for 20 years of rampant growth now that it seems social media is starting to dry up.
      • jasonsb 11 months ago
        I don't think he's contesting the reasons. We get it, there are real reasons behind this, but wouldn't it be so much cooler if they just stopped? If anything, society needs less technology at this point, not more.
    • uberman 11 months ago
      This ad immediately made me want to change the channel and I'm glad to see it rotate out.

      The idea that AI should write a snarky letter on behalf of a child to their hero makes me sick.

      What recipient wants to read an avalanche of AI garbage "from 6 year old fans"? Who would ever respond to this other than to:

      Gemini, write a snarky response to this letter you wrote on behalf of this "fan".

      • uberman 11 months ago
        For fun Gemini gave me this seemingly appropriate reaponse...

        "Aw, how sweet. A future rival. rolls eyes Look, kiddo, breaking records isn't about typing it out. It's about putting in the hours, the sweat, and the tears. And let's be honest, AI-generated fan mail isn't exactly inspiring. Maybe focus on learning how to write a heartfelt letter first, then worry about beating me. Until then, keep dreaming, champ."

      • dspillett 11 months ago
        > It looks like you're using an ad blocker. CBS News is your go-to destination for breaking news and exclusive reporting across the globe. Your browser or blocker is impacting your experience. Click below to access the full site.

        I don't block ads. I block being stalked throughout my passage online by 3rd parties that are not even of your choosing. I'll stop blocking your ads when they are no longer stalky.

        In the meantime cbsnews.com itself has been added to my DNS blocklist, just in case.

        Grumble grumble moan moan.

        • Wevah 11 months ago
          Not to mention the title of the button to dismiss: “I’ll fix it next time”. Ugh.
        • quantified 11 months ago
          Individuality isn't always welcomed. I've had multiple managers tell me to use a narrow vocabulary, and intimate friends tell me I'm wrong for asking for "a pound and a half" of something at the deli counter instead of "one and a half pounds". The common thread is that I'm wrong for not fitting in. No one seems to win for being themselves if they're not within some tight band of acceptability, and reading a lot of works written before 1975 while growing up definitely places you on the fringe.

          Maybe GenAI can prepare you for what real people can actually deal with.

          • sashank_1509 11 months ago
            Highlighting such a bad product use case. Is there anyone who uses LLM’s like this?

            I’ve seen this trend where big tech companies so desperately want their product to matter to the most important and emotional things of your life, that they try to shoehorn a perfectly fine product into the most unneeded situations. Think of VisionPro dad recording his child’s birthday, or LLM’s being your therapist?? It feels like coming from a place of insecurity, where in the past technology did affect life’s most important moments (for example the smartphone camera), and they just want to keep trying to recapture that but they can’t force every piece of new technology to fulfill that role.

            An ad that showed Gemini proofreading your email, finding grammatical faults and suggesting better words would have been perfectly fine. Or even better an ad that shows how people use Gemini like Google search asking stuff in natural language and receiving correct answers (a lot of LLM’s hallucinate really less now), and even if Olympics isn’t the right platform, an ad just displaying the coding capabilities of these bots would be perfect. Instead we get inundated with this nonsense, next we will get an ad that shows a child write a heartfelt letter to her terminally ill bed ridden mother using Gemini, sigh.

            • jmugan 11 months ago
              Yeah, ugh, what were they thinking? The whole point of a fan letter is the personal connection, telling that person you admire who you are and why they inspire you.
              • jmugan 11 months ago
                If you compare this with the recent Apple add of crushing everything into a thin tablet, I can at least see the reasoning and the benefit. They should have seen it from other perspectives and changed it, but there is something smart there. This is just not smart from any perspective, and it's hard to imagine how people at Google didn't understand this.
              • 13324 11 months ago
                https://archive.is/CPu9S
                • 11 months ago