Google has revised its Super Bowl advertisement for Gemini AI after the tool made an inaccurate claim about Gouda cheese consumption worldwide.
The original commercial, designed to demonstrate Gemini's capabilities, featured a Wisconsin cheesemonger receiving AI assistance to write a product description. In the ad, Gemini stated that Gouda makes up "50 to 60 percent of global cheese consumption" - a claim that was quickly challenged.
After a blogger on X platform flagged the statistic as "unequivocally false," Google executive Jerry Dischler responded that this wasn't an AI "hallucination." Instead, he attributed the error to multiple websites containing the incorrect statistic that Gemini had referenced.
In response to the error, Google has created a new version of the advertisement. The updated commercial, now available on YouTube, completely removes the disputed Gouda consumption statistic. The company consulted with the featured cheesemonger about the revision, implementing his suggestion to rewrite the product description without the questionable data.
While precise global cheese consumption statistics are challenging to verify, industry experts suggest that cheddar and mozzarella are among the world's most consumed cheese varieties, with preferences varying by region.
This incident highlights the ongoing challenges of AI systems providing accurate information, even when backed by major tech companies like Google.