The 2024 Summer Olympics have been inundated with adverts from tech giants promoting their latest AI tools, but their bland approach has left viewers unimpressed and with concerns.
Vox Report As the world watches top athletes compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics, a flood of ads showcasing the latest AI tools from Google, Microsoft, Meta and others are being shown. Intended to highlight AI’s potential to improve and empower our lives, these ads come across as callous and insensitive to growing concerns surrounding the technology.
One particularly egregious example is Google’s “Dear Sydney” ad, in which a father uses the company’s Gemini AI to compose 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. Technology consultant Shelley Palmer said, “Dear Sydney was one of the most annoying 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 problem with the marketing strategies of the AI industry, which often boasts about the technology’s ability to make meaningful human activities obsolete. The approach is particularly worrisome given widespread fears that AI will replace jobs and make existing jobs worse.
The tone of these AI ads is reminiscent of the cryptocurrency and Web3 ads that dominated the 2022 Super Bowl. Both industries have touted their respective technologies as the next great innovation that will make humanity super-productive and wealthy. But just as the cryptocurrency bubble burst after a massive price drop and scandal, there are signs that the AI bubble is on the verge of bursting.
The sky-high cost of running AI models, plus the fact that the technology is an environmental disaster that consumes as much energy as a small country, have raised serious questions about its feasibility and practicality, but the IOC and NBC have fully embraced AI, using it for everything from generating voices for sportscasters to crowd monitoring.
Viewers are overwhelmed by sparkly emojis and taglines about AI as superpowers that fit in the palm of your hand, and are left wondering how this technology will actually benefit their lives. Instead of emphasizing how their products will help with practical tasks like housework, and instead focusing on how they will disrupt job prospects, privacy, and the uniquely human experience, the AI industry only confirms the public’s worst fears about the technology.
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering free speech and online censorship.
