Google makes edit to Super Bowl ad after fans spot embarrassing AI error
Google has made an edit to its Super Bowl advertisement after fans spotted a rather embarrassing AI error.
The tech giant has made a retroactive change to the clip in order to remove a mistake that was caused by artificial intelligence.
Google’s own AI is known as Gemini, and is a chatbot that was launched in 2023.
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Last week, the firm launched a Super Bowl ad which promotes ‘Google Workspace with Gemini’.
The clip depicts a Wisconsin cheese mart owner who explains how helpful Gemini is for writing descriptions of the products he sells online, prompting the chatbot to generate a description of Smoked Gouda ‘that would appeal to cheese lovers’.
The AI gets to work, quickly producing a short paragraph.
However, eagle eyed viewers noticed a glaring mistake visible in the description.
Gemini claims that gouda accounts for ‘50 to 60 percent of the world’s cheese consumption’.
The error was called out on social media by travel blogger Nate Hake.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, he directly responded to the blogger, writing: “In Google's Wisconsin local Super Bowl ad, an AI hallucination is shown on screen: It says *Gouda* accounts for ‘50 to 60 percent of the world's cheese consumption.’
“Gemini provides no source, but that is just unequivocally false. Cheddar & mozzarella would like a word.”
In Google's Wisconsin local Super Bowl ad, an AI hallucination is shown on screen:
— Nate Hake (@natejhake) January 31, 2025
It says *Gouda* accounts for "50 to 60 percent of the world's cheese consumption."
Gemini provides no source, but that is just unequivocally false
Cheddar & mozzarella would like a word… pic.twitter.com/UwIBHAO4x6
Andrew Novakovic, who is a professor of agricultural economics at Cornell University spoke to The Verge about the incident, saying: “While Gouda is likely the most common single variety in world trade, it is almost assuredly not the most widely consumed.”
Google Cloud apps president Jerry Dischler was quick to jump to Gemini’s defence.
He also took to X, writing: “Hey Nate - not a hallucination, Gemini is grounded in the Web - and users can always check the results and references. In this case, multiple sites across the web include the 50-60% stat. Gouda news: many love this cheese! Bada news: not everyone thinks it’s as grate.”
The clip, which was uploaded to YouTube, has since been edited to remove the inaccurate statistic.
Speaking to Futurism, a Google spokesperson said: “After the question came up about the Gouda stat, we spoke with the owner of the Wisconsin Cheese Mart to ask him how he would handle it.
“Following his suggestion to have Gemini rewrite the product description without the stat, we updated the UI to reflect what the business would do.”