×
Google admits Gemini AI demo was staged in Super Bowl ad
Written by
Published on
Join our daily newsletter for breaking news, product launches and deals, research breakdowns, and other industry-leading AI coverage
Join Now

Google’s upcoming Super Bowl advertisement has been found to misrepresent the capabilities of its Gemini AI by showing it generating a product description that existed years before the AI’s launch.

The central issue: A commercial intended for Super Bowl broadcast shows Google’s Gemini AI supposedly creating a product description for Wisconsin Cheese Mart, but investigation reveals the text has existed on the company’s website since 2020.

  • The advertisement depicts Gemini generating website copy for a Gouda cheese listing
  • The exact description shown in the ad has been publicly available since August 2020, three years before Gemini’s launch
  • Google’s Gemini AI was not released until 2023, making it impossible for it to have created the content as portrayed

Previous controversy: The commercial had already faced criticism for accuracy issues before this revelation.

  • The ad initially included an incorrect statistic claiming Gouda represents “50 to 60 percent of the world’s cheese consumption”
  • Google subsequently edited the commercial to remove the inaccurate statistic
  • The business owner also removed the incorrect information from their website

Google’s response: The company’s handling of the situation has raised questions about transparency in AI advertising.

  • Google Cloud apps president Jerry Dischler defended the ad on social media platform X, claiming the Gouda statistic “was not a hallucination”
  • Company spokesperson Michele Wyman stated the business owner requested Gemini rewrite the description without the statistic
  • Google has not immediately responded to requests for comment about the pre-existing nature of the website description

Looking ahead: Marketing AI responsibly: This incident highlights the growing challenge of accurately representing AI capabilities in marketing materials, particularly in high-profile advertising venues like the Super Bowl where companies face pressure to demonstrate technological leadership.

Google faked Gemini AI output in Super Bowl ad

Recent News

Plexe unleashes multi-agent AI to build machine learning models from natural language

Plexe's open-source tool translates natural language instructions into functional machine learning models through a collaborative AI agent system, eliminating the need for coding expertise.

Claude outshines its rivals in high-pressure AI interview test

Hands-on experiment reveals Claude 3.7 Sonnet outperforms competitors with superior analytical thinking and professional communication in simulated hiring scenario.

How AI lets startups stay lean and win big

AI-powered startups are maintaining smaller, more efficient teams while expanding their reach, challenging traditional notions that scaling requires proportional headcount growth.