one year on
Google admits Gemini video demo was not real time as shown
A Bloomberg columnist reports that Google’s Gemini duck demo was not carried out in real time or in voice, with still images from video footage and human prompts narrated afterward.
A Google spokesperson tells Bloomberg columnist Parmy Olson that its widely-shared video demo of the Gemini AI model interacting with a duck was not performed in real time or using voice, as many viewers assumed. According to the spokesperson, the model was shown a sequence of still images extracted from video footage, and the human prompts were narrated afterward.
One year later — open only if you can handle spoilers
The Gemini demo controversy became a recurring case study in AI marketing ethics. Google later improved transparency labels for model demonstrations, but the incident permanently dented initial public trust in Gemini's capabilities. OpenAI referenced the episode when announcing live demos for GPT-4o in 2024.
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