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Marissa Mayer may be a tech visionary as the former CEO of Yahoo and Google’s first female engineer, but there’s one simple task she couldn’t handle on her own.
Describing her 10-year-old daughter.
Ahead of her daughter Marielle’s 10th birthday, a teacher asked Mayer for three bullet points highlighting what makes the young girl special. Stumped, the tech executive turned to her personal AI assistant, Dazzle, to write the response for her.
Dazzle churned out three generic descriptors — “empathetic, creative, and an animal lover” — which Mayer called “perfect” in an interview with The New York Times. The 51-year-old admitted she relied on the AI tool because she felt overwhelmed by the “range and complexity of potential answers.”
Mayer is now entering the crowded AI market with Dazzle, a consumer startup specifically aiming to attract female users. The app scans photos in a user’s camera roll to answer personal queries and offer tailored recommendations.
By analyzing camera roll photos, Dazzle claims to learn a user’s hobbies, interests and style. However, the app also shares camera roll data with third-party platforms for shopping and assistance features.
Her admission to using the tool for a three-adjective description has sparked online rage.
X users are ridiculing her not only for doing this and admitting to it, but for using it as promotional material for her company.
“Wow, I guess she doesn’t even know her own daughter if she thinks this is perfect,” one Reddit user wrote. “It describes a generic 10-year-old kid.”
“I hope the kid doesn’t get to read this shxtty post about how her mom doesn’t give a shxt about her, bc I know my mom can write a whole essay about me,” said another. “So can most moms, and they don’t have personalized AI assistants.”
Mayer has pitched Dazzle as an “AI wife” designed for women, claiming it eases the daily mental load of domestic planning for busy parents.
Whether describing one’s own child falls under that category remains up for debate.
The Post has reached out to Mayer via Dazzle and on social media.
It isn’t the first time the former Yahoo CEO has faced criticism for tone-deaf behavior. In 2016, Yahoo employees told The Post that morale plummeted after Mayer assured staff there would be no layoffs “this week.”
In 2017, Capitol Hill lawmakers subpoenaed Mayer to testify regarding massive cybersecurity breaches at Yahoo. She resigned shortly after the company’s core operations were sold to Verizon.
Despite past controversies, Mayer remains confident in AI, stating she envisions Dazzle handling everyday tasks like finding online products or tracking down gifts for spouses.
She also firmly believes it will help women rise in ranks.
“Selfishly, as a woman, you always want to see more people like you at the table making those decisions,” Mayer told The New York Times, addressing the gender gap in AI leadership.