When your kid starts showing a preference for one of their stuffed animals, you’re supposed to buy a backup in case it goes missing.
Technology
I re-created Google’s cute Gemini ad with my own kid’s stuffie, and I wish I hadn’t
I’ve heard this advice again and again, but never got around to buying a second plush deer once “Buddy” became my son’s obvious favorite. Neither, apparently, did the parents in Google’s newest ad for Gemini.
It’s the fictional but relatable story of two parents discovering their child’s favorite stuffed toy, a lamb named Mr. Fuzzy, was left behind on an airplane. They use Gemini to track down a replacement, but the new toy is on backorder. In the meantime, they stall by using Gemini to create images and videos showing Mr. Fuzzy on a worldwide solo adventure — wearing a beret in front of the Eiffel tower, running from a bull in Pamplona, that kind of thing — plus a clip where he explains to “Emma” that he can’t wait to rejoin her in five to eight business days. Adorable, or kinda weird, depending on how you look at it! But can Gemini actually do all of that? Only one way to find out.
I fed Gemini three pictures of Buddy, our real life Mr. Fuzzy, from different angles, and gave it the same prompt that’s in the ad: “find this stuffed animal to buy ASAP.” It returned a couple of likely candidates. But when I expanded its response to show its thinking I found the full eighteen hundred word essay detailing the twists and turns of its search as it considered and reconsidered whether Buddy is a dog, a bunny, or something else. It is bananas, including real phrases like “I am considering the puppy hypothesis,” “The tag is a loop on the butt,” and “I’m now back in the rabbit hole!” By the end, Gemini kind of threw its hands up and suggested that the toy might be from Target and was likely discontinued, and that I should check eBay.
‘I am considering the puppy hypothesis’
In fairness, Buddy is a little bit hard to read. His features lean generic cute woodland creature, his care tag has long since been discarded, and we’re not even 100 percent sure who gave him to us. He is, however, definitely made by Mary Meyer, per the loop on his butt. He does seem to be from the “Putty” collection, which is a path Gemini went down a couple of times, and is probably a fawn that was discontinued sometime around 2021. That’s the conclusion I came to on my own, after about 20 minutes of Googling and no help from AI. The AI blurb when I do a reverse image search on one of my photos confidently declares him to be a puppy.
Gemini did a better job with the second half of the assignment, but it wasn’t quite as easy as the ad makes it look. I started with a different photo of Buddy — one where he’s actually on a plane in my son’s arms — and gave it the next prompt: “make a photo of the deer on his next flight.” The result is pretty good, but his lower half is obscured in the source image so the feet aren’t quite right. Close enough, though.
The ad doesn’t show the full prompt for the next two photos, so I went with: “Now make a photo of the same deer in front of the Grand Canyon.” And it did just that — with the airplane seatbelt and headphones, too. I was more specific with my next prompt, added a camera in his hands, and got something more convincing.
I can see how Gemini misinterpreted my prompt. I was trying to keep it simple, and requested a photo of the same deer “at a family reunion.” I did not specify his family reunion. So that’s how he ended up crashing the Johnson family reunion — a gathering of humans. I can only assume that Gemini took my last name as a starting point here because it sure wasn’t in my prompt, and when I requested that Gemini created a new family reunion scene of his family, it just swapped the people for stuffed deer. There are even little placards on the table that say “deer reunion.” Reader, I screamed.
1/2
For the last portion of the ad, the couple use Gemini to create cute little videos of Mr. Fuzzy getting increasingly adventurous: snowboarding, white water rafting, skydiving, before finally appearing in a spacesuit on the moon addressing “Emma” directly. The commercial whips through all these clips quickly, which feels like a little sleight of hand given that Gemini takes at least a couple of minutes to create a video. And even on my Gemini Pro account, I’m limited to three generated videos per day. It would take a few days to get all of those clips right.
Gemini wouldn’t make a video based on any image of my kid holding the stuffed deer, probably thanks to some welcome guardrails preventing it from generating deepfakes of babies. I started with the only photo I had on hand of Buddy on his own: hanging upside down, air-drying after a trip through the washer. And that’s how he appears in the first clip it generated from this prompt: Temu Buddy hanging upside down in space before dropping into place, morphing into a right-side-up astronaut, and delivering the dialogue I requested.
A second prompt with a clear photo of Buddy right-side-up seemed to mash up elements of the previous video with the new one, so I started a brand new chat to see if I could get it working from scratch. Honestly? Nailed it. Aside from the antlers, which Gemini keeps sneaking in. But this clip also brought one nagging question to the forefront: should you do any of this when your kid loses a beloved toy?
I gave Buddy the same dialogue as in the commercial, using my son’s name rather than Emma. Hearing that same manufactured voice say my kid’s name out loud set alarm bells off in my head. An AI generated Buddy in front of the Eiffel Tower? Sorta weird, sorta cute. AI Buddy addressing my son by name? Nope, absolutely not, no thank you.
How much, and when, to lie to your kids is a philosophical debate you have with yourself over and over as a parent. Do you swap in the identical stuffie you had in a closet when the original goes missing and pretend it’s all the same? Do you tell them the truth and take it as an opportunity to learn about grief? Do you just need to buy yourself a little extra time before you have that conversation, and enlist AI to help you make a believable case? I wouldn’t blame any parent choosing any of the above. But personally, I draw the line at an AI character talking directly to my kid. I never showed him these AI-generated versions of Buddy, and I plan to keep it that way.
Nope, absolutely not, no thank you.
But back to the less morally complex question: can Gemini actually do all of the things that it does in the commercial? More or less. But there’s an awful lot of careful prompting and re-prompting you’d have to do to get those results. It’s telling that throughout most of the ad you don’t see the full prompt that’s supposedly generating the results on screen. A lot depends on your source material, too. Gemini wouldn’t produce any kind of video based on an image in which my kid was holding Buddy — for good reason! But this does mean that if you don’t have the right kind of photo on hand, you’re going to have a very hard time generating believable videos of Mr. Sniffles or whoever hitting the ski slopes.
Like many other elder millennials, I think about Calvin and Hobbes a lot. Bill Watterson famously refused to commercialize his characters, because he wanted to keep them alive in our imaginations rather than on a screen. He insisted that having an actor give Hobbes a voice would change the relationship between the reader and the character, and I think he’s right. The bond between a kid and a stuffed animal is real and kinda magical; whoever Buddy is in my kid’s imagination, I don’t want AI overwriting that.
The great cruelty of it all is knowing that there’s an expiration date on that relationship. When I became a parent, I wasn’t at all prepared for the way my toddler nuzzling his stuffed deer would crack my heart right open. It’s so pure and sweet, but it always makes me a little sad at the same time, knowing that the days where he looks for comfort from a stuffed animal like Buddy are numbered. He’s going to outgrow it all, and I’m not prepared for that reality. Maybe as much as we’re trying to save our kids some heartbreak over their lost companion, we’re really trying to delay ours, too.
All images and videos in this story were generated by Google Gemini.
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For years, two women in Bremerton, Washington, opened credit cards and lines of credit in other people’s names, working from documents they pulled out of stolen mail. Emily Vranic and Heather Marquis redirected the new accounts’ statements to an address they controlled, so no bill ever reached the victims. They pleaded guilty in federal court this month to bank fraud and aggravated identity theft in a scheme prosecutors say stole nearly $229,000 from banks and bank customers.
If you have ever worried about a credit card opened in your name, this case shows how quickly stolen mail can turn into a much bigger identity theft problem. Opening a new account is the leading form of identity misuse reported to the Identity Theft Resource Center. In its latest data, 62.1% of attempted misuse cases began with a new account application rather than the takeover of an account the victim already held.
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WARNING SIGNS YOUR MAIL HAS BEEN FRAUDULENTLY REDIRECTED
A credit card opened in your name can start with stolen mail, exposed personal details or documents pulled from the trash. (Nastasic/Getty Images)
How stolen mail helped thieves open credit cards
When people picture an account opened in their name, they may imagine a checking account at a bank they have never set foot in. The more likely target is a credit card. Credit cards made up 41% of attempted account misuse reported to the ITRC last year. Checking accounts came to 17.7% and personal loans to 8.5%.
A credit card is one of the easier accounts to open in someone else’s name, and the reason is in how the application is cleared. A lender matches the submitted name, date of birth, address and Social Security number (SSN) against the bureau file. When those details fit a record that already exists, an automated system can approve the application with no one confirming that the applicant is the person being described. Assemble enough of someone’s information from breaches and stolen mail, and the check clears.
Why identity thieves rarely stop at one account
Vranic and Marquis did not stop at one account per victim. Once they controlled someone’s identity, they activated existing cards, opened new credit lines and moved money out of bank accounts tied to the same name.
This is common. The ITRC found that 25.6% of victims are now handling two or more identity incidents at once, up from 23.5% the year before. The same stolen details, including name, date of birth, address and SSN, can open the next account as easily as the first.
DON’T LET THIS CREDIT CARD FRAUD NIGHTMARE HAPPEN TO YOU
A fraudulent credit card may stay hidden for weeks if statements and notices are sent to an address controlled by the thief. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
Why weeks can pass before you learn about the account
A new account does not announce itself. It reaches your credit report only after the first statement closes, which puts the first record 30 to 60 days behind the opening. Banks report to the bureaus monthly, and the bureaus need up to two weeks more to post the change.
The first paper notice goes wherever the application is listed. Vranic and Marquis had the statements mailed to their own address, not the victims’. When the mail reaches the right house, it may read like a routine offer or a card no one ordered, which makes it easy to set aside.
By the time a denied loan or a collections call makes the account impossible to ignore, it has been open and drawing money for weeks.
WHY THAT $4 CHARGE ON YOUR STATEMENT COULD BE FRAUD
Freezing your credit, watching for new accounts and acting quickly can help limit the damage if your identity is used. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
What to do if a credit card appears in your name
Move quickly, because every day an account stays open gives a thief more time to spend money, damage your credit or try the same information somewhere else.
1) Contact the card issuer immediately
Call the credit card company or lender that opened the account and tell them the account is fraudulent. Ask them to close or freeze the account, stop any pending charges and send written confirmation that you are not responsible for the debt.
2) Start at IdentityTheft.gov
Go to IdentityTheft.gov. The Federal Trade Commission’s site generates an Identity Theft Report and recovery plan to help you report identity theft, limit the damage and fix your credit.
3) File a police report if a creditor asks for one
Your FTC Identity Theft Report is usually the key document for disputing fraudulent accounts. Some lenders, banks or debt collectors may also ask for a police report. If that happens, file one with your local police department and keep a copy for your records.
4) Save every document and confirmation number
Keep copies of account statements, collection letters, emails, dispute letters, FTC reports, police reports and confirmation numbers. A clear paper trail can make it easier to prove the account was fraudulent if a creditor, credit bureau or debt collector questions your claim.
5) Dispute the account in writing
Dispute the fraudulent account directly with the lender that opened it, in writing. Also dispute it with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion if it appears on your credit reports. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, companies that furnish information to credit bureaus have a duty to investigate disputed information.
6) Freeze your credit at all three bureaus
Place a freeze at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion to help block the next application. Freezes have been free since 2018 and can be lifted online when you need to apply for credit.
7) Add a fraud alert
A credit freeze blocks access to your credit file. A fraud alert tells lenders to take extra steps to verify your identity before opening new credit in your name. You only need to contact one of the three major credit bureaus to place a fraud alert, and that bureau must notify the other two.
8) Report suspected mail theft
If you believe stolen mail helped someone open the account, report it to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement arm of the Postal Service. You can report mail theft, identity theft, fraudulent change-of-address requests, fraudulent mail holds and fake Informed Delivery accounts at mailtheft.uspis.gov.
9) Request an IRS Identity Protection PIN
If your Social Security number was used, request an IRS Identity Protection PIN at irs.gov/ippin. This helps keep a thief from filing a tax return in your name.
10) Change passwords and lock down your accounts
Change the passwords on your bank, credit card and email accounts, especially if your email address was part of the fraud. Use a password manager to create and store strong, unique passwords for each account, so one exposed password cannot unlock the rest of your financial life. Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) where available. Then review recent transactions, saved payment methods and automatic payments for anything you do not recognize.
11) Get help cleaning up the damage
Cleaning up identity theft can mean dealing with creditors, credit bureaus, debt collectors and repeat follow-ups. Keep copies of every report, dispute letter, confirmation number and account closure notice so you have a clear paper trail if the fraud resurfaces.
No service can prevent every account opened in your name. Continuous three-bureau credit monitoring may alert you to new accounts as they are reported, rather than weeks later when a lender turns you down or a collections notice arrives. See my tips and best picks on Best Identity Theft Protection at Cyberguy.com
Kurt’s key takeaways
A stolen credit card account can quietly grow into a much bigger identity theft mess before you ever see a bill. That is what makes this Washington case so alarming. The victims were not ignoring warning signs. The statements were being sent somewhere else. The best move is to make it harder for thieves to open the next account. Freeze your credit at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, watch for hard inquiries and check your credit reports for accounts you do not recognize. If something appears, go straight to IdentityTheft.gov, file a report and dispute the account in writing with the lender. Credit monitoring can also give you a faster heads-up when a new account or inquiry hits your file. It will not stop every scam, but it can shorten the time between the fraud starting and you finding out.
Have you ever found a credit card, loan or account on your credit report that you did not open? Let us know how you discovered it and what it took to fix it by writing to us at Cyberguy.com
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Valve has some good news and bad news about Steam Controllers. The good news: if you make a reservation for a Steam Controller, the company will now show you one of three estimates of when you’ll be able to actually order your gamepad: by September 2026, by December 2026, or sometime in 2027. The bad news: any reservations made today “indicate a 2027 date for shipping,” Valve says.
“We have no plans to stop making Steam Controller,” according to Valve. “But as we look at the current demand compared to how many we know we can make by the end of the year, we want to manage expectations as much as we can with regards to when folks can expect to receive their order.”
Valve’s very good new Steam Controller went on sale in early May, and the initial rush led some people to run into frustrating problems with trying to check out ahead of the controllers eventually going out of stock. A few days later, the company announced that it would be implementing a reservations queue for interested buyers so they could get on a waitlist. If you’re on the waitlist, when you get notified that a Steam Controller is ready for you to buy, you have 72 hours to actually make the order.
“When we launched Steam Controller last month, we quickly saw that initial demand exceeded our expectations,” Valve says. “Switching to a reservation queue has (hopefully) cut down on the headaches on the customer side, and for us it’s also been helpful as we plan ahead and try to get as many out as quickly as we are able.”
All three of Valve’s big hardware products were delayed from a planned early 2026 launch because of the component crisis, Valve still hasn’t announced when the Steam Machine PC or Steam Frame VR headset might go on sale. However, just yesterday, Valve officially launched its big SteamOS 3.8 update with support for the Steam Machine. It’s also been importing a lot of hardware into the US as of late.
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The next time you pull up to a McDonald’s drive-thru, the voice taking your order may not be human. McDonald’s is testing a new AI-powered system called ArchIQ at five U.S. locations. The company has not said where those restaurants are located. The voice assistant, nicknamed Archy, can take drive-thru orders and has shown it can handle both English and Spanish.
For anyone who has repeated “no pickles” into a speaker box more than once, this could sound helpful. However, if you remember McDonald’s last AI drive-thru experiment, you may also wonder whether your burger order could somehow turn into a bag full of surprise McNuggets.
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WOULD YOU EAT AT A RESTAURANT RUN BY AI?
McDonald’s is testing an AI drive-thru system called ArchIQ at five U.S. restaurants. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
What is McDonald’s AI drive-thru?
ArchIQ is McDonald’s new AI system for restaurants. It can take drive-thru orders and also help with operations behind the scenes.
In a post on X, McFranchisee, an anonymous McDonald’s franchisee account, said the system is currently in five test stores and has processed more than one million transactions. The account also said about 90% of orders were completed without a human stepping in. That number sounds promising. Still, McDonald’s has not confirmed a nationwide launch date. For now, this remains a limited test.
The system also appears to connect with a bigger McDonald’s plan called “McDonald’s > NEXT.” CEO Chris Kempczinski described the strategy as a way to bring in more customers and improve restaurant productivity. The plan also includes menu changes, restaurant redesigns, technology upgrades and more focus on hospitality.
Why McDonald’s is testing AI ordering
Drive-thrus can get chaotic fast. Someone changes an order after the total appears. A child calls out from the back seat. Road noise makes the speaker hard to hear. Then the driver remembers the extra sauce after everything has already gone through. That is the type of pressure McDonald’s wants AI to handle.
If ArchIQ works well, it could help restaurants move cars through the line faster. It may also reduce mistakes during busy hours. Workers could then focus more on preparing food, handling payments and helping customers who need a real person.
ArchIQ also appears to have a management role. In the same X post, McFranchisee described Archy as a tool that could alert managers to bottlenecks or other issues before they slow down operations.
STARBUCKS USES CHATGPT TO SUGGEST DRINKS BASED ON MOOD AS EXPERT WARNS OF HIDDEN DOWNSIDES
The AI assistant, nicknamed Archy, can take drive-thru orders and may also help managers spot restaurant slowdowns. (McFranchisee)
McDonald’s tried AI drive-thru ordering before
This new test follows McDonald’s earlier AI drive-thru experiment with IBM. That program involved more than 100 restaurants. McDonald’s ended the test in 2024 after customers complained about order accuracy. Some mistakes also went viral, creating an embarrassing moment for McDonald’s and raising questions about whether the technology was ready for the drive-thru. Customers reported wrong items, strange quantities and other order mix-ups. That history is why this new test will get extra attention.
This time, McDonald’s is working with Google technology. McFranchisee also claimed every McDonald’s in the U.S. is getting Google Edge Cloud hardware in anticipation of the rollout. McDonald’s seems to believe the newer system can perform better than the last one. The real test will come when regular customers use it during real drive-thru rushes.
How McDonald’s AI drive-thru could help customers
If McDonald’s gets this right, the most obvious benefit is speed. An AI ordering system does not get tired during a long shift. It may also help more customers order in the language they prefer. That could make a busy drive-thru feel less frustrating, especially during breakfast or late-night hours.
The system may also ask clearer follow-up questions and catch missing details before the order reaches the kitchen. That would be a win for customers who want to get in, get their food and get on with the day.
The biggest problem with AI drive-thru orders
The biggest concern is accuracy. AI can still misunderstand people. That gets frustrating fast when you are trying to grab lunch between errands or get your kids fed from the back seat. A wrong order wastes time. It also puts workers in the position of fixing a mistake the machine made.
There is also the customer service side. Some people like hearing a real person at the speaker. Others may find an AI voice cold or annoying, especially if the system gets confused.
Then there is the privacy question. If an AI system takes your order, customers may wonder what gets collected, how long it is kept and who can access it. McDonald’s has not publicly explained those specifics for this current ArchIQ test.
ALEXA+ LETS YOU ORDER FOOD LIKE A REAL CONVERSATION
A drive-thru menu board stands outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Hercules, Calif., on Oct. 23, 2024, amid an E. coli outbreak linked to onions in Quarter Pounder sandwiches that has sickened dozens and killed one person across the U.S. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
How to avoid AI drive-thru mistakes
Before you leave the drive-thru, take a moment to check the order screen. Make sure the items match what you said. Listen when the system repeats your order. Keep your receipt until you confirm the food is right.
Also, avoid sharing extra personal details at the speaker box. Your order should only require your food choices and payment.
If the AI gets confused, ask for a crew member. You do not need to keep going back and forth with a machine over fries.
What this means for you
For now, you probably will not notice a change at your local McDonald’s. The ArchIQ test appears limited to five U.S. restaurants, and the company has not said when it could expand.
Still, this gives customers a preview of where fast food may be heading. AI could soon play a bigger role in how restaurants take orders and manage the kitchen. That may speed up the line, though it could also make the experience feel less personal.
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Kurt’s key takeaways
McDonald’s clearly wants AI to play a bigger role in its restaurants. From a business point of view, the idea makes sense. Shorter drive-thru lines could help franchisees and customers. Better restaurant data could also help managers fix problems faster. But I still want the human backup. Food orders can be messy because people are messy. We change our minds. We talk over each other. We forget the extra ketchup until the last second. AI may handle much of that one day. For now, I would treat it like any busy drive-thru interaction. Speak clearly. Check the order. Do not pull away until you know your food is right.
Would you trust an AI voice to take your McDonald’s order, or do you still want a real person on the other end of the speaker? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com
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