The 2024 Formula E season gets underway this weekend in Mexico City and Mahindra team boss Frederic Bertrand will be happy to see the cars in racing action perhaps more than most. After dealing with the fallout of a garage battery fire in pre-season testing that put the team on the back foot, the Indian manufacturer was at the centre of a PR campaign gone awry earlier this week.
This was after it announced it had, using artificial intelligence, created an influencer named Ava, which was designed to “showcase the team's journey in the FIA Formula E World Championship, and towards a more sustainable future for our planet”.
No sooner had the news broken on social media, revealing the face of said AI character, a barrage of negative comments came flooding in, with some more critical than others. Before long the mob momentum that at times is both a blessing and a curse on platforms such as Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) meant the team was left in an untenable position.
The decision was taken just 24 hours later to scrap the campaign, with the main criticism being on why the ‘position’ had been filled by an AI rather than a human.
“For us, it was just to add one tool to our toolbox for communication and to have one additional possibility for people to ask questions and get answers. A bit like when you rent a car and then you have an AI talk to you,” says Bertrand on the origins of the concept, with the team intending to run it alongside its existing influencer campaigns.
“The idea was to create something which is more interactive, more fun. We probably didn’t explain that enough and that’s where we have failed. I still believe that the idea of having that type of input and support to the fans is something that can come as an addition to what we are doing and then it’s not replacing anyone.”
The concept had been running as early as 8 December with 11 Instagram posts published from that date until the account was removed on Thursday, having described itself as a "Sustainable Tech Queen & Racing Rebel Robot", with its goal of "fuelling inclusion through AI innovation".
Source: Autosport