Lego and AMG Mercedes F1 have a AI Car Crash.
Lessons to learn from Lego and AMG Mercedes F1 silly mistake.
This story has so many of my favourite geeky things Lego, AMG Mercedes F1 team(I still need to write a blog on Williams and that Excel File) and AI. It’s important to contextualise this story by making readers aware that It’s been less than a month since Lego got itself in a world of pain for using AI art in its online Ninjago quiz, which did not go down well with Lego fans.
The company went on to assure the public that they would take measures to prevent this happening again.
So why am I writing about this now ? Well last weekend the official Mercedes F1 Team’s Twitter feed had the above promotional image of its new LEGO model, timed perfectly with the Japanese Grand Prix.
The image seen at the top of this blog featured a LEGO Technic car zooming through a cherry blossom-adorned Japanese street, and call-outs of the LEGO logo, the Mercedes emblem, and Lewis Hamilton’s autograph.
Now let me first say the Lego car itself looks amazing and I can’t wait to save enough money to buy one “to build with my son”.
So what was wrong with the image ?
The poster showed the typical inconsistencies of generative AI. Just look at the background the buildings and those cherry trees just don’t look right;
So how did the Lego Fan’s react ?
So what can we learn from this ?
I imagine that something like the following happened;
In a digital team office, an intern is given the task of creating either the image for the Ninjago quiz or the Lego F1 car, and they think they can use AI for that. The whole scenario reveals a glaring underestimation of the AI art creation process, resulting in visuals that are embarrassingly off-brand for both companies. This clearly upsets fans of the brands. Just look at the reach of the criticism on some of those Twitter responses. If something as simple as an image used for a social share can harm your brand image, just imagine what a misstep with a more serious application of AI could do to your brand.
As a passionate advocate of ethical AI, we often talk about the risk to brands, fines, and the challenges of using AI ethically. I see people’s eyes sometimes glaze over, and you see them thinking, “Maybe this is too risky for us.” In reality, though, if your business does not get on the AI journey, you’re going to be left behind. Lego is derived from the Danish phrase “leg godt,” which means “play well,” and perhaps that should be part of our approach.
Unless you give guidelines on how to play well with AI, your workers are just going to do it. I think the challenge for us all is filling the education void about how to use AI responsibly, like the guidebook that lets you turn a box of bricks into something amazing. So when thinking about learning, everyone in an organization needs to understand both the risks and amazing opportunities that AI can bring to a business. Here are a few links to help you start that journey.
Foundation models: Opportunities, risks and mitigations
AI governance for the enterprise
If you would like to have a conversation about how we can share our experiences of education both on the oppotunties and risks of using AI or have some questions then do reach out to me.
