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The whole Gemini webpage and contents felt weird to me, it's in the uncanny valley of trying to look and feel like an Apple marketing piece. The hyperbolic lang

by htk 3y ago

The whole Gemini webpage and contents felt weird to me, it's in the uncanny valley of trying to look and feel like an Apple marketing piece. The hyperbolic language, surgically precise ethnic/gender diversity, unnecessary animations and the sales pitch from the CEO felt like a small player in the field trying to pass as a big one.

kjkjadksj 3y ago
I’m imagining the project managers are patting themselves on the back for checking all the performative boxes, blind to the absolute satire of it all.
cedws 3y ago
I got the same vibes. Ultra and Pro. It feels tacky that it declares the "Gemini era" before it's even available. Google really want to be seen as level on the playing field.
crazygringo 3y ago
> surgically precise ethnic/gender diversity What does that mean and why is it bad? Diversity in marketing is used because, well, your desired market is diverse. I don't know what it means for it to be surgically precise, though.
- cheeze 3y ago
  Agreed with your comment. This is every marketing department on the planet right now, and it's not a bad thing IMO. Can feel a bit forced at times, but it's better than the alternative.
  - ilkke 3y ago
    The alternative being showing actual level of diversity in the company?
- rtsil 3y ago
  It's bad if the makeup of the company doesn't reflect the diversity seen in the marketing, because it doesn't reflect any genuine value and is just for show. Now, I don't know how diverse the AI workforce is at Google, but the YT thumbnails show precisely 50% of white men. Maybe that's what the parent meant by "surgically precise".
- kokanee 3y ago
  I imagine the commenter was calling out what they perceived to be an inauthentic yet carefully planned facade of diversity. This marketing trend rubs me the wrong way as well, because it reminds me of how I was raised and educated as a 90s kid to believe that racism was a thing of the past. That turned out to be a damaging lie. I don't mean to imply that companies should avoid displays of diversity, I just mean that it's obvious when it's inauthentic. Virtue signaling in exchange for business is not progress.
  - asadotzler 3y ago
    You'd prefer the alternative with just a few white guys in the picture and no consideration given at all to appearing diverse?
    - cscurmudgeon 3y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village But for diversity.
    - gitaarik 3y ago
      The alternative is to just be authentic and not put up a fake show.
      - Closi 3y ago
        (and for the result to be authentically diverse)
    - xwolfi 3y ago
      Just take a group of people that actually know and work together and you're authentic. Forced diversity is idiotic: either you do it or you don't, but you show what you're doing to be authentic. Imagine how cringe it would be if only white guys were allowed to work at Google and they displayed in all their marketing a fully diverse group of non-white girls. That would be... inauthentic. Just the fact girls are less than guys in IT is something we should demonstrate, understand, change if needed. Not hide behind a facade of 50/50 display everywhere as if the problem was already solved or that it was even a problem in the first place.
- GaryNumanVevo 3y ago
  Of course to normal people, this just seems like another Google keynote. If OP is counting the number of white people, maybe they're the weird one here.
- scotty79 3y ago
  It's new token black guy. It's not completely bad, just feels inauthentic.
kozikow 3y ago
It's funny because now the OpenAI keynote feels like it's emulating the Google keynotes from 5 years ago. Google Keynote feels like it's emulating the Apple keynote from 5 years ago. And the Apple keynote looks like robots just out of an uncanny valley pretending to be humans - just like keynotes might look in 5 years, but actually made by AI. Apple is always ahead of the curve in keynote trends.
- robbomacrae 3y ago
  The more I think about this the more it rings true...
- wharvle 3y ago
  I hadn’t thought about it until just now, but the most recent Apple events really are the closest real-person thing I’ve ever seen to some of the “good” computer generated photorealistic (kinda…) humans “reading” with text-to-speech that I’ve seen. It’s the stillness between “beats” that does it, I think, and the very-constrained and repetitive motion.
  - lmm 3y ago
    Hmm. Like the "NPC fetish" stuff that was going around for a brief minute?
  - tailspin2019 3y ago
    Is there such a concept as a “reverse uncanny valley”?? Where humans behave so awkwardly that they seem artificial but are just not quite close enough… If so, Apple have totally nailed the reverse uncanny valley!
- hanspeter 3y ago
  You know those memes where AI keeps escalating a theme to more extreme levels with each request? That's what Apple keynotes feel like now. It seems like each year, they're trying to make their presentations even more essentially 'Apple.' They crossed the uncanny valley a long time ago.

by htk 3y ago

kjkjadksj 3y ago

I’m imagining the project managers are patting themselves on the back for checking all the performative boxes, blind to the absolute satire of it all.

cedws 3y ago

I got the same vibes. Ultra and Pro. It feels tacky that it declares the "Gemini era" before it's even available. Google really want to be seen as level on the playing field.

crazygringo 3y ago

> surgically precise ethnic/gender diversity What does that mean and why is it bad? Diversity in marketing is used because, well, your desired market is diverse. I don't know what it means for it to be surgically precise, though.

cheeze 3y ago
Agreed with your comment. This is every marketing department on the planet right now, and it's not a bad thing IMO. Can feel a bit forced at times, but it's better than the alternative.
- ilkke 3y ago
  The alternative being showing actual level of diversity in the company?
rtsil 3y ago
It's bad if the makeup of the company doesn't reflect the diversity seen in the marketing, because it doesn't reflect any genuine value and is just for show. Now, I don't know how diverse the AI workforce is at Google, but the YT thumbnails show precisely 50% of white men. Maybe that's what the parent meant by "surgically precise".
kokanee 3y ago
I imagine the commenter was calling out what they perceived to be an inauthentic yet carefully planned facade of diversity. This marketing trend rubs me the wrong way as well, because it reminds me of how I was raised and educated as a 90s kid to believe that racism was a thing of the past. That turned out to be a damaging lie. I don't mean to imply that companies should avoid displays of diversity, I just mean that it's obvious when it's inauthentic. Virtue signaling in exchange for business is not progress.
- asadotzler 3y ago
  You'd prefer the alternative with just a few white guys in the picture and no consideration given at all to appearing diverse?
  - cscurmudgeon 3y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village But for diversity.
  - gitaarik 3y ago
    The alternative is to just be authentic and not put up a fake show.
    - Closi 3y ago
      (and for the result to be authentically diverse)
  - xwolfi 3y ago
    Just take a group of people that actually know and work together and you're authentic. Forced diversity is idiotic: either you do it or you don't, but you show what you're doing to be authentic. Imagine how cringe it would be if only white guys were allowed to work at Google and they displayed in all their marketing a fully diverse group of non-white girls. That would be... inauthentic. Just the fact girls are less than guys in IT is something we should demonstrate, understand, change if needed. Not hide behind a facade of 50/50 display everywhere as if the problem was already solved or that it was even a problem in the first place.
GaryNumanVevo 3y ago
Of course to normal people, this just seems like another Google keynote. If OP is counting the number of white people, maybe they're the weird one here.
scotty79 3y ago
It's new token black guy. It's not completely bad, just feels inauthentic.

kozikow 3y ago

It's funny because now the OpenAI keynote feels like it's emulating the Google keynotes from 5 years ago. Google Keynote feels like it's emulating the Apple keynote from 5 years ago. And the Apple keynote looks like robots just out of an uncanny valley pretending to be humans - just like keynotes might look in 5 years, but actually made by AI. Apple is always ahead of the curve in keynote trends.

robbomacrae 3y ago
The more I think about this the more it rings true...
wharvle 3y ago
I hadn’t thought about it until just now, but the most recent Apple events really are the closest real-person thing I’ve ever seen to some of the “good” computer generated photorealistic (kinda…) humans “reading” with text-to-speech that I’ve seen. It’s the stillness between “beats” that does it, I think, and the very-constrained and repetitive motion.
- lmm 3y ago
  Hmm. Like the "NPC fetish" stuff that was going around for a brief minute?
- tailspin2019 3y ago
  Is there such a concept as a “reverse uncanny valley”?? Where humans behave so awkwardly that they seem artificial but are just not quite close enough… If so, Apple have totally nailed the reverse uncanny valley!
hanspeter 3y ago
You know those memes where AI keeps escalating a theme to more extreme levels with each request? That's what Apple keynotes feel like now. It seems like each year, they're trying to make their presentations even more essentially 'Apple.' They crossed the uncanny valley a long time ago.