It's no secret that Google is pushing its Gemini AI hard in the race to keep pace with ChatGPT's new models and hot up-and-comers like Claude.

Google seemingly hopes to differentiate itself from others by being a sort of Every(wo)man's AI. A recent Gemini ad campaign titled "No Wrong Way to Prompt" shows people asking routine questions as they go about their day. And now, Google is taking its message to the global stage as the "Official Search AI Partner of Team USA" at the Paris Olympics.

The search giant likely wants people to forget the glitchy rollout of AI Overviews on Google.com in May, which kicked off a social media frenzy as Gemini advised someone to put glue on pizza, said a dog had played in the NBA (Air Bud perhaps?), and misidentified a poisonous mushroom as safe eat. The list of ridiculous responses goes on and on; entire Twitter threads were dedicated to asking obscure questions and seeing what the new AI had to say.

In Google's defense, it was hard to know if some of these responses were Photoshopped. "Many of the examples we’ve seen have been uncommon queries, and we’ve also seen examples that were doctored or that we couldn’t reproduce," a Google spokesperson said via email at the time. "We conducted extensive testing before launching this new experience."

Still, Google removed inaccurate responses, blaming them on so-called "data voids." Google CEO Sundar Pichai also tried to reset consumer expectations, noting that large language models powering chatbots "aren't necessarily the best approach to get at factuality." He argued that hallucinations are a feature (not a bug) that makes them more creative.

But now, Google seems confident enough in Gemini and AI Overviews to add them to the primetime Olympic lineup. Through a deal with NBCUniversal, which has exclusive rights to Olympics coverage, NBC reporters and commentators will incorporate Google's AI products into their coverage to "enhance the viewing experience for fans of all ages," according to Dan Lovinger, president of Olympic and Paralympic partnerships at NBCUniversal.

Will Gemini earn a gold medal or get disqualified? Google is probably not leaving anything to chance; expect what we see at home to be as tightly choreographed as Simone Biles' floor routine and not entirely representative of the everyday user experience. It is an ad campaign, after all.

Google is playing it safe by limiting reporters' questions to a custom-built "Explain the Games" AI search experience, rather than giving newscasters the freedom to search the entire internet on live TV. From the sound of it, "Explain the Games" is a limited AI model trained on the athletes' backstories and the nuances of the sports, "like the importance of lane assignments in swimming."

Commentator and comedian Leslie Jones will do a bit with Google Gemini, asking the chatbot questions "to satisfy her many Paris Games and Team USA curiosities," Google says. Another campaign will feature five Olympians and Paralympians roaming Paris and using Google Lens, Circle to Search, and other AI products to learn about the city.

Sadly, all of the above will likely be pre-recorded and scrubbed by PR before reaching us at home, rather than live demos that would really put these new AI products to the test. Simple question-and-answer demos also do not showcase some of the more advanced, compelling uses of AI, like instantly generating data tables or summarizing data in a large PDF. That's where AI can be most useful and differentiate itself from Google's legacy search experience.

But even in this tightly controlled format, Google's deal with the Olympics will bring Gemini to an audience beyond developers at I/O, AI early adopters, and tech reporters. For Google, the best-case scenario is a spike in traffic as viewers take Gemini for a spin. It just needs to steer clear of corny, canned AI demos.

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved