Ah, the Super Bowl. A time for football, overpriced commercials, and… AI-powered cheese facts?
Yep, Google decided to use its multimillion-dollar ad slot to show off Gemini, its latest AI assistant, helping a Wisconsin cheesemonger write a product description for Gouda. Seems harmless enough, right? Well, turns out, Gemini got a little too cheesy with the facts.
The Big Gouda Blunder
In the ad, Gemini confidently stated that Gouda makes up “50 to 60 percent of the world’s cheese consumption.”
Now, I’m no dairy economist, but that number seemed a bit high. And, sure enough, cheese experts—including Cornell University’s Andrew Novakovic—were quick to call it out. While Gouda is certainly a beloved cheese, it’s not exactly half of all cheese on Earth (unless there’s a secret underground Gouda syndicate nobody told us about).
Google’s Quick Fix
Realizing that its AI had basically declared Gouda the supreme ruler of all cheeses, Google swiftly edited the ad to remove the, um… overly generous stat. A spokesperson for Google explained that they checked with the actual cheesemonger in the ad, and ultimately had Gemini rewrite the description—this time with slightly more factual accuracy.
Now, let’s pause for a second. If Google’s AI can confidently hallucinate a world where Gouda is the undisputed king of dairy, what else might it be, ahem, embellishing? This little cheese debacle is a perfect example of why AI-generated content needs a reality check—because while a Gouda exaggeration is funny, misinformation in, say, finance or healthcare? Not so much.
Here’s the corrected Ad. It’s still pretty good.
Why All This Matters for Small Businesses
If you’re using AI to generate content for your business (descriptions, marketing copy, blog posts, etc.), fact-checking is non-negotiable. AI doesn’t “lie” on purpose, but it does have a bad habit of making things up with total confidence.
So, a few takeaways from Google’s Super Bowl Cheese-gate:
AI is great for brainstorming, but don’t trust it blindly. Always verify key facts before hitting publish.
Your brand’s credibility is on the line. If AI-generated content goes unchecked, you look like the one making things up.
Even big tech makes mistakes. If Google can spend millions on an ad that gets its facts wrong, anyone can.
At the end of the day, AI is a tool—not an infallible source of truth. And if Gemini wants to impress us, maybe next time it should tackle something harder than cheese.