Google pulls misleading Gemini demo video (after getting called out, of course)

Google can’t stay out of the limelight right now – and not in a good way.

The tech giant has been a hot topic of conversation since its run-in with the US federal court in August. During that case, the court ruled Google had illegally obtained a monopoly over the search industry.

10 days later, and Google was making headlines again for an AI ad that absolutely flopped. The company ended up pulling the ad, as viewers deemed it tone-deaf.

And let’s not forget that earlier this year, Gemini went rogue, spouting a whole string of historical inaccuracies.

Turns out, fourth time's a charm, because here we are again.

Last week, Google unlisted a Gemini demo video it posted last December that, at the time, was extremely impressive.

So why did they unlist it? Well, because it was misleading.

In the demo video, which amassed over 3 million views on YouTube, a person appears to be interacting with Gemini in real time. Gemini quickly and aptly responds to various spoken prompts. It easily identifies parts of drawings and even creates a game about geography.

However, the video is actually a dramatisation of a far more stilted and slower process.

And BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division (NAD), an ad industry 'watch dog' has called Google out on their bullsh*t.

The NAD has questioned whether the video is an accurate depiction of how Gemini can respond to prompts. They've also expressed concern about whether the timing and pace of Gemini’s responses in the demo is misleading.

For context, the National Advertising Division’s monitoring program includes a focus on advertising for rapidly developing technologies. It's meant to ensure consumers receive truthful and accurate information.

Google responded to the inquiry by ending its promotion of the video. Yeah, that doesn't make them look guilty...

Of course, in true tech giant fashion, Google had put a disclaimer, buried deep in the video description.

This disclaimer indicated that Gemini may not be as high performing as it seemed, stating 'For the purposes of this demo, latency has been reduced and Gemini outputs have been shortened for brevity.'

Near the start of the video, they put another note which said, 'Sequences shortened throughout.'

Google DeepMind’s Oriol Vinyals also clarified that the video illustrated what 'the multimodal user experiences built with Gemini could look like.'

The demo also implies several times that Gemini can intuitively understand how magic tricks work. What it doesn't show is what was happening behind the scenes. In fact, the Google team painstakingly walked Gemini through the various activities it would be asked to perform ahead of time.

Cheeky.

These discrepancies caused controversy when the video came out last year. In fact, many news outlets reported that the demo was fraudulent. But Google has stood by its demo, until now.

If Google is going for a legendary streak of public flops, it is succeeding with flying colours.

-Sophie, Writer