Google Gemini is an excellent AI tool for seeking information from the combined knowledge of people on the web who actually spent the time unearthing it.
So why is Google apparently faking Gemini output for a Super Bowl commercial? The company has been caught red-handed lifting copy from a cheese business’ webpage and acting as if it was text crafted for the company by Google Gemini.
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It all comes down to Gouda. Google’s commercial depicts a business owner asking Gemini for help writing an item description. The text Gemini apparently conjured about the flavourful Dutch cheese actually appeared on the Wisconsin Cheese Mart’s website as far back as 2020. Remarkably, Gemini came up with the exact same description!
It reads: “Gouda is a Dutch cheese named after the city of Gouda in the Netherlands. It is one of the most popular cheeses in the world, accounting for 50 to 60 percent of the world’s cheese consumption.
“Smoked Gouda is a variant of this famous cheese, smoked in brick ovens over flaming hickory chip embers. This sweet curd is similar to Edam except that it contains more milk fat, which gives it a creamier texture and causes it to become more buttery with age. Sensational with beer, this cows milk cheese has an edible, smokey brown rind and a creamy, yellow interior.”
Now we want some Gouda.
The Verge points out Gemini wasn’t able to help people craft text until 2023, so Google couldn’t have generated this description.
Google had previously been pulled up for an incorrect stat – about the city of Gouda being responsible 50% to 60% of the world’s cheese consumption being – and had removed it from the commercial.
Google has previously said that “Gemini is grounded in the Web,” which explains why both Gemini and the website had the same text? No.
Why fake it?
If Google Gemini is really as powerful as Google would have us believe, why is it lifting copy directly from a business’s website and having us believe Gemini crafted the description from us?
This is probably a case of the advertisers taking a few liberties. However, considering there’s already such distrust of AI the straight-up plagiarism is a bit of a misstep.
