Google simply cannot escape the drama related to its Super Bowl Sunday ad campaign that is supposed to promote its Gemini AI model. What was originally thought to be a bit of hallucinated information from Gemini—which would be bad all on its own—turns out to have not even come from Gemini at all.

Google appears to have faked AI output in a commercial set to run during the Super Bowl. The ad shows a business owner using Gemini to write a website description, but the text portrayed as generated by AI has been available on the business’s website since at least August 2020, as shown on this archived webpage.

The AI Super Bowl, with multiple tech giants clamoring to advertise advanced chatbots, already had its first big fumble, after a Google ad provided wildly inaccurate facts. Google plans to air 50 local ads in 50 states,

Google's Gemini can replicate the sound of human conversation better than other AI, but the new Super Bowl ad proves it might not be a good thing.