{"id":16366,"date":"2025-12-25T16:09:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T16:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo4.dedicatedhost247.com\/newstime\/googles-cute-gemini-ad-is-mostly-honest-about-lying-to-your-kid\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T16:09:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T16:09:36","slug":"googles-cute-gemini-ad-is-mostly-honest-about-lying-to-your-kid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo4.dedicatedhost247.com\/newstime\/googles-cute-gemini-ad-is-mostly-honest-about-lying-to-your-kid\/","title":{"rendered":"Google\u2019s cute Gemini ad is mostly honest about lying to your kid"},"content":{"rendered":"


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When your kid starts showing a preference for one of their stuffed animals, you\u2019re supposed to buy a backup in case it goes missing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I\u2019ve heard this advice again and again, but never got around to buying a second plush deer once \u201cBuddy\u201d became my son\u2019s obvious favorite. Neither, apparently, did the parents in Google\u2019s newest ad for Gemini<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s the fictional but relatable story of two parents discovering their child\u2019s favorite stuffed toy, a lamb named Mr. Fuzzy, was left behind on an airplane. They use Gemini to track down a replacement, but the new toy is on backorder. In the meantime, they stall by using Gemini to create images and videos showing Mr. Fuzzy on a worldwide solo adventure \u2014 wearing a beret in front of the Eiffel tower, running from a bull in Pamplona, that kind of thing \u2014 plus a clip where he explains to \u201cEmma\u201d that he can\u2019t wait to rejoin her in five to eight business days. Adorable, or kinda weird, depending on how you look at it! But can Gemini actually do all of that? Only one way to find out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I fed Gemini three pictures of Buddy, our real life Mr. Fuzzy, from different angles, and gave it the same prompt that\u2019s in the ad: \u201cfind this stuffed animal to buy ASAP.\u201d It returned a couple of likely candidates. But when I expanded its response to show its thinking I found the full eighteen hundred word essay<\/em> detailing the twists and turns of its search as it considered and reconsidered whether Buddy is a dog, a bunny, or something else. It is bananas<\/em>, including real phrases like \u201cI am considering the puppy hypothesis,\u201d \u201cThe tag is a loop on the butt,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m now back in the rabbit hole!\u201d By the end, Gemini kind of threw its hands up and suggested that the toy might be from Target and was likely discontinued, and that I should check eBay.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2018I am considering the puppy hypothesis\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In fairness, Buddy is a little bit hard to read. His features lean generic cute woodland creature, his care tag has long since been discarded, and we\u2019re not even 100 percent sure who gave him to us. He is, however, definitely made by Mary Meyer, per the loop on his butt. He does seem to be from the \u201cPutty\u201d collection, which is a path Gemini went down a couple of times, and is probably a fawn that was discontinued sometime around 2021. That\u2019s the conclusion I came to on my own, after about 20 minutes of Googling and no help from AI. The AI blurb when I do a reverse image search on one of my photos confidently declares him to be a puppy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Gemini did a better job with the second half of the assignment, but it wasn\u2019t quite as easy as the ad makes it look. I started with a different photo of Buddy \u2014 one where he\u2019s actually on a plane in my son\u2019s arms \u2014 and gave it the next prompt: \u201cmake a photo of the deer on his next flight.\u201d The result is pretty good, but his lower half is obscured in the source image so the feet aren\u2019t quite right. Close enough, though.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The ad doesn\u2019t show the full prompt for the next two photos, so I went with: \u201cNow make a photo of the same deer in front of the Grand Canyon.\u201d And it did just that \u2014 with the airplane seatbelt and headphones, too. I was more specific with my next prompt, added a camera in his hands, and got something more convincing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Looks plausible enough.<\/em><\/figcaption>Image: Gemini \/ The Verge<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Safety first, Buddy.<\/em><\/figcaption>Image: Gemini \/ The Verge<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I can see how Gemini misinterpreted my prompt. I was trying to keep it simple, and requested a photo of the same deer \u201cat a family reunion.\u201d I did not specify his<\/em> family reunion. So that\u2019s how he ended up crashing the Johnson family reunion \u2014 a gathering of humans<\/em>. I can only assume that Gemini took my last name as a starting point here because it sure wasn\u2019t in my prompt, and when I requested that Gemini created a new family reunion scene of his <\/em>family, it just swapped the people for stuffed deer. There are even little placards on the table that say \u201cdeer reunion.\u201d Reader, I screamed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"<em>I\u2019m<\/a><\/div>\n
\"<em>Oh<\/a><\/div>\n