Ex Google Exec Faces Backlash for Asking AI What Makes Daughter Special: ‘You Shouldn’t Be a Parent’

Former Google Executive Marissa Mayer is facing major backlash after revealing that she turned to artificial intelligence to identify three things that make her daughter special.

In an interview with The New York Times published on Sunday, October 25, the 51-year-old tech executive explained how her new AI app, Dazzle — which she founded and launched in September – helped her tackle a recent problem involving a school assignment for her 10-year-old daughter.

Mayer, who was also the first female engineer at Google, explained that her daughter’s teacher had asked for three bullet points highlighting what made her special. To complete the task, she turned to her Dazzle for help.

“It came back and was like, your daughter is empathetic, creative and an animal lover,” Mayer said, adding that she thought the response was perfect.

While Mayer was very pleased with the results, many took issue with her use of AI to identify her own daughter’s good qualities.

Someone pointed out on X, “If you can’t think of 3 good things about your kid, you shouldn’t be a parent.”

Another wrote, “I’m sorry, you need an A.I. assistant to tell you what is special about your own daughter? That is pretty pathetic!”

A disappointed commenter added, “I wonder how your daughter will feel about this years from now. Really creepy to exploit your parenting deficits to sell an application. Why did you have kids?”

Another chimed in, “Have you ever met your child? This is incredibly disturbing.”

Mayer hopes Dazzle can help ease the burden on busy women who have been hesitant to embrace AI, according to the outlet.

“So much of what I see with these assistants, they’re quite technical,” she added. “There’s definitely a cohort of people, probably more women than men, that are too busy for that, and it’s also extremely jargon loaded and intimidating. So we built Dazzle to be more approachable.”