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I hate the Gemini 'Dear Sydney' ad more every passing moment

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Re: I hate the Gemini 'Dear Sydney' ad more every passing moment

#71

Post by JohnFen »

its_ethan wrote: post #34
api wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This and that awful Apple ad are both saying the same thing, or at least that’s how people interpret it. They’re saying “AI is here to make life sterile and empty and it’s awesome!” What I find most intriguing is the fact that these are giant companies with huge ad budgets and that presumably clear the highest profile ads with the C suite or people near it. All these presumably smart people thought these ads were gre…

With respect to the Apple ad, I don't think that was about AI at all - it was for the newest iPad Pro right? I interpreted it as look at all these cool arts/creative things that we've managed to compress into a single sheet of glass. I sort of get how people interpreted it as just maliciously destroying those things as a means to an end, but that feels like an intentional reading of bad faith to a company that is gen…

> but that feels like an intentional reading of bad faith

I don't think it was an intentional reading in bad faith at all. I think the reaction is a result of the general public's existing perception of the state of things: big tech is here to monetize and worsen everything you love.

Whether or not that's an accurate perception, it is a very common one. The tech industry seems to view itself as unalloyed "good guys", but that's not generally how it's viewed among normal people.

Re: I hate the Gemini 'Dear Sydney' ad more every passing moment

#72

Post by latchkey »

tim333 wrote: post #68
latchkey wrote: post #64

We are just repeating history. Webvan advertisement 1999: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOw5i1PJ3vs

It was interesting seeing that - I hadn't before. You could see them get some things right and some wrong. Web based delivery is of course big now but 'you have the right to grocery store prices" plus loads of guys in huge vans delivering didn't really add up. It's about the details I guess. In London most deliveries are guys on ebikes and cost about £5 so the numbers actually balance.

In Vietnam, it is about $1-2. Was big before, but became huge after covid. I'm even seeing ghost kitchens here now.

Re: I hate the Gemini 'Dear Sydney' ad more every passing moment

#73

Post by Jensson »

prepend wrote: post #70
fnord77 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's no bad publicity

I disagree. Having publicity that reduces the value of a brand is bad. I think the expression was created by publicists who, of course, want more publicity no matter what, because it makes them money.

Googles brand today is cold correctness, people seeing dystopian AI overlords in them is not going against their brand image. The posts showing how it is wrong is much worse for their image than this is, so people thinking of this rather than the errors is better for their brand.

Re: I hate the Gemini 'Dear Sydney' ad more every passing moment

#74

Post by Jensson »

jagged-chisel wrote: post #12

> I don’t hate efficiency. Are any of us trying to be “efficient” when writing a fan letter? I wouldn’t think so. I want a suggestion on how to start. If I asked an AI for the letter from the ad, I would also have read and edited it heavily before I considered it “complete.” Maybe TFA author is correct that people need to hear what he’s saying (they won’t), but I for one will be using AI output as suggestions.

> Are any of us trying to be “efficient” when writing a fan letter?

A student who got that as a writing assignment in school would! They are targeting all the people who have to write bullshit optimistic letters everywhere, like HR, managers writing encouragements, students writing assignments, teachers writing feedback, and so on.

Re: I hate the Gemini 'Dear Sydney' ad more every passing moment

#75

Post by consteval »

its_ethan wrote: post #34
api wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This and that awful Apple ad are both saying the same thing, or at least that’s how people interpret it. They’re saying “AI is here to make life sterile and empty and it’s awesome!” What I find most intriguing is the fact that these are giant companies with huge ad budgets and that presumably clear the highest profile ads with the C suite or people near it. All these presumably smart people thought these ads were gre…

With respect to the Apple ad, I don't think that was about AI at all - it was for the newest iPad Pro right? I interpreted it as look at all these cool arts/creative things that we've managed to compress into a single sheet of glass. I sort of get how people interpreted it as just maliciously destroying those things as a means to an end, but that feels like an intentional reading of bad faith to a company that is gen…

> intentional reading of bad faith

In my opinion, marketing relies on targeting people's initial guttural feelings. That's why car commercials always show the cool part of driving, to activate the monkey brain "ooo shiny!" mentality.

So, I think criticisms of how people feel are fair game. Meaning if someone doesn't have a logical argument that's fine to me - because marketing is emotional manipulation anyway, so if your emotions got manipulated wrongly then the marketing failed.

Re: I hate the Gemini 'Dear Sydney' ad more every passing moment

#76

Post by consteval »

disqard wrote: post #65
ethbr1 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Google Gemini "Allow me to reintroduce myself" ad is also hilarious. As in, right, re- introduce yourself... because the initial launch was such a hamfisted clusterfuck. Or the Meta ad that muses "Write me a training plan to run a marathon." Because finding a training plan (a five minute internet search) is the hardest, limiting step of that endeavor! Not the months of dedication and will to stick to it.

It's the same as any other piece of tech-that-will-disrupt-X-industry: a good concrete example is EdTech, where the core premise is that making curriculum "moar fun" is all that's needed. Spoiler: education's biggest challenge is the need for sustained motivation, not shinier graphics (or interactive content (or AI-generated personalized content)).

Turns out motivation is a uniquely human quality. I've heard countless stories of teachers who "saved my life" from people. Haven't gotten that same kind of response from EdTech endeavors.

Re: I hate the Gemini 'Dear Sydney' ad more every passing moment

#77

Post by consteval »

seoulmetro wrote: post #62
beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ad is seen as so bad because its attempt to create some supposed "essential" use case is hilariously transparent. There's just a visceral disgust we have when we see things like these targeted at children. We know what they are. The takeaway from the ad is a step back and away from the idea that technology will make us better or improve our lives; Google comes across as crassly presenting something bad (or pointl…

> when most people can see right through it as the worst kind of marketing No. Most people definitely cannot. Most people can't see through the weird diversity nuclear option on all large company marketing these days. "White, male, straight, most common denominator in many countries and YOU have the NERVE to think that we should market to you!?" It'd be hilarious if it weren't so weird to think that people are active…

I think the reality is that the vast majority of media, period, is about and targeted to white people. If you were to take up ALL the media, you'd realize minorities are still very under represented.

Also it makes people feel good when they're represented. White men won't admit that, because for them they're always represented. And when they're not its a problem, so clearly even they understand the power of representation.

And, lastly, if you LOOK you can see white people are still in almost every ad. They're just not the only people in the ad. This is a problem of greed, the white man does not settle for anything less than 100%.

Keep in mind I'm saying this as a white man. The world is truly made for us and our success. On the off-chance it's not this one time, we need to be okay with that and learn to get over it.

Re: I hate the Gemini 'Dear Sydney' ad more every passing moment

#78

Post by ethbr1 »

consteval wrote: post #76
disqard wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same as any other piece of tech-that-will-disrupt-X-industry: a good concrete example is EdTech, where the core premise is that making curriculum "moar fun" is all that's needed. Spoiler: education's biggest challenge is the need for sustained motivation, not shinier graphics (or interactive content (or AI-generated personalized content)).

Turns out motivation is a uniquely human quality. I've heard countless stories of teachers who "saved my life" from people. Haven't gotten that same kind of response from EdTech endeavors.

What people think teacher do: teach material

What teachers actually do: address mental health blockers, help align resources where they're lacking at home, provide a positive environment that children can escape to, inspire children to want to learn, deal with any myriad of emergency issues that come up on a given day (e.g. how often does a coworker have a bathroom accident and need your help addressing it, in the middle of your presentation?)

Re: I hate the Gemini 'Dear Sydney' ad more every passing moment

#79

Post by prepend »

Jensson wrote: post #73
prepend wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Having publicity that reduces the value of a brand is bad. I think the expression was created by publicists who, of course, want more publicity no matter what, because it makes them money.

Googles brand today is cold correctness, people seeing dystopian AI overlords in them is not going against their brand image. The posts showing how it is wrong is much worse for their image than this is, so people thinking of this rather than the errors is better for their brand.

Google’s brand is a bloated cash cow gradually fading to irrelevance. It’s like IBM or 2000s Microsoft or whatever.

I don’t think they like this brand. I think they want people talking about things that promote them.

Re: I hate the Gemini 'Dear Sydney' ad more every passing moment

#80

Post by seoulmetro »

techostritch wrote: post #69
seoulmetro wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when most people can see right through it as the worst kind of marketing No. Most people definitely cannot. Most people can't see through the weird diversity nuclear option on all large company marketing these days. "White, male, straight, most common denominator in many countries and YOU have the NERVE to think that we should market to you!?" It'd be hilarious if it weren't so weird to think that people are active…

What are you on about? I can’t really dissect your words, but 60% of the worlds population is Asian. Like only 10% of the worlds population is white.

I don't think you understand which markets Apple targets with their $1.5k phones.

If they were marketing it for the masses it'd be vastly different. Obviously they're marketing it for Western nations.

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