Google AI ad sparks backlash among some Olympic viewers

Social media posts fired off on an array of platforms questioned whether the ad signalled a dystopian future in which human creativity atrophies due to AI. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas

SAN FRANCISCO: Google irked some watchers of the Olympic Games over the weekend with an ad showing its artificial intelligence program help a girl write a letter to her sports idol.

The "Dear Sydney" ad, intended to adorably tout capabilities of Google's Gemini AI, featured a dad warmly describing how the tool wrote his daughter a letter to US hurdler Sydney Michelle McLaughlin-Levrone.