July 20, 2023. Update March 30, 2024
The timely attention-bait claim that Margot Robbie, who plays Barbie in the upcoming movie Barbie, is mid made the rounds on the Internet this week.
A late-comer with yet-to-be-formed opinions on the matter might ask "is Margot Robbie mid," and where better to ask that question than Google, now equipped with the AI-powered Search Generative Experience?
Before examining Google's response, let's analyze the query [is Margot Robbie mid].
"Margot Robbie" is an entity in Google's Knowledge Graph with all that that entails. Google does know that "mid" has ambiguity. Given the initial "is" it's likely clear to the algorithm that the response should describe what "mid" means in this context.
In summary, the response to the query should address who Margot Robbie, what mid is, why the question is being asked, and perhaps who deems her to be mid or not.
Here's what SGE responded with when I ran the query [is margot robbie mid]:
Some men on the internet have called Margot Robbie "mid". "Mid" is a slang term often used on social media to describe someone or something as below average or low-quality. "Mid" refers to people, usually women, whose appearance falls in the middle of the rating system used to measure attraction.
Robbie is an acclaimed actor, producer, and advocate for women's rights. She's also a Barbie star and has played provocative characters in The Wolf of Wall Street and The Legend of Tarzan.
The "Margot Robbie is mid" trend sparked an argument about unrealistic beauty standards. Some say that the fact that this became a debate is a sign of toxic beauty standards.
Google provides sources for its response. Below is the same output, but with links to the sources for SGE's output:
Some men on the internet have called Margot Robbie "mid". (Glamour UK and YourTango)
"Mid" is a slang term often used on social media to describe someone or something as below average or low-quality. (YourTango)
"Mid" refers to people, usually women, whose appearance falls in the middle of the rating system used to measure attraction.
Robbie is an acclaimed actor, producer, and advocate for women's rights. (Glamour UK, Wkipedia)She's also a Barbie star and has played provocative characters in The Wolf of Wall Street and The Legend of Tarzan. (The Daily Dot and NY Post)
The "Margot Robbie is mid" trend sparked an argument about unrealistic beauty standards. (The Daily Dot and Newsweek)
Some say that the fact that this became a debate is a sign of toxic beauty standards. (NY Post)
In addition to being used as a source in SGE's output, NY Post also scored a Featured Snippet, which is at the top of the traditional organic search results.
It's followed by links to
and then a bunch of other sites.
Note that New Lines Magazine, MamaMia, and BroBible are not listed as sources in SGE's response. Their pages on the matter may have been deemed redundant or not concise or precise enough to make the cut.
Wikipedia is listed as a source in the SGE output, but isn't used. Maybe it's just used as a sort of reference point.
The SGE output is mostly direct or near quotes of text extracted from the various articles listed as sources.
From Glamour:
Margot Robbie is an acclaimed actor, producer, and advocate for women's rights. She's also – according to some men on the internet – “mid.”
“Mid” refers to people (usually women) whose appearance falls in the middle of the screwed-up rating system we all use to measure our attraction to one another.
From YourTango:
Men on Twitter are calling Margot Robbie ‘mid,’ and declaring she’s too old to be Barbie. The word 'mid' is a slang term often used on social media to describe something (or someone) as below average or low-quality.
From Wikipedia:
According to the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, Robbie's most critically acclaimed films are About Time (2013), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Z for Zachariah (2015), Suite Française (2015), Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016), I, Tonya (2017), Mary Queen of Scots (2019), Bombshell (2019), Once Upon a Time in
The extraction does cut off just like that.
Daily Dot:
Literally cast as an embodiment of aspirational beauty, Barbie star Margot Robbie is conventionally attractive by any reasonable metric. So when a handful of guys on Twitter labeled her “mid,” it sparked an argument about unrealistic beauty standards.
NY Post:
It goes without saying that Margot Robbie — who has played incredibly provocative characters “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Legend of Tarzan”— is anything but “mid.”
But the fact that this even became grounds for debate is a sign of some pretty toxic beauty standards.
Newsweek:
A debate about how beautiful Margot Robbie is has caused an online stir.
Millions have become embroiled in the discussion after some Twitter users agreed that Australian actress and Academy Award nominee Robbie is only "mid" attractive. "Mid" is a slang term, often used in a derogatory way
Now we can combine SGE's summarizations with the cited extractions and compare:
| Summarization Snippet | Extracted Snippet |
| Some men on the internet have called Margot Robbie "mid". |
Margot Robbie is an acclaimed actor, producer, and advocate for women's rights. She's also – according to some men on the internet – “mid.” (Glamour)
Men on Twitter are calling Margot Robbie ‘mid,’ and declaring she’s too old to be Barbie. (YourTango) |
| "Mid" is a slang term often used on social media to describe someone or something as below average or low-quality. | The word 'mid' is a slang term often used on social media to describe something (or someone) as below average or low-quality. (YourTango) |
| "Mid" refers to people, usually women, whose appearance falls in the middle of the rating system used to measure attraction. Robbie is an acclaimed actor, producer, and advocate for women's rights. |
Margot Robbie is an acclaimed actor, producer, and advocate for women's rights. She's also – according to some men on the internet – “mid.”
“Mid” refers to people (usually women) whose appearance falls in the middle of the screwed-up rating system we all use to measure our attraction to one another. (Glamour) |
| She's also a Barbie star and has played provocative characters in The Wolf of Wall Street and The Legend of Tarzan. | Literally cast as an embodiment of aspirational beauty, Barbie star Margot Robbie is conventionally attractive by any reasonable metric. So when a handful of guys on Twitter labeled her “mid,” it sparked an argument about unrealistic beauty standards. (Daily Dot)
It goes without saying that Margot Robbie — who has played incredibly provocative characters “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Legend of Tarzan”— is anything but “mid.” (NY Post) |
| The "Margot Robbie is mid" trend sparked an argument about unrealistic beauty standards. | Literally cast as an embodiment of aspirational beauty, Barbie star Margot Robbie is conventionally attractive by any reasonable metric. So when a handful of guys on Twitter labeled her “mid,” it sparked an argument about unrealistic beauty standards. (Daily Dot)
A debate about how beautiful Margot Robbie is has caused an online stir. Millions have become embroiled in the discussion after some Twitter users agreed that Australian actress and Academy Award nominee Robbie is only "mid" attractive. "Mid" is a slang term, often used in a derogatory way (Newsweek) |
| Some say that the fact that this became a debate is a sign of toxic beauty standards. | But the fact that this even became grounds for debate is a sign of some pretty toxic beauty standards. (NY Post) |
What Google Search Generative Experience does is multi-document summarization.
It is something that Google has been working on for years, at one point exploring a Machine Learning technique called sentence compression.
SGE's output is almost like a featured snippet, but instead of extracting a couple of sentences from one page, SGE extracts relevant passages from multiple high-ranking documents and puts together a hopefully coherent text that answers the query.
It is almost like a collapsed or concatenated tradtional search results page, but streamlined for relevance to the query, to read more like a featured snippet.
The following are the snippets taken from the traditional organic resuls for [is margot robbie mid]:
It goes without saying that Margot Robbie — who has played incredibly provocative characters “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Legend of Tarzan”— is anything but “mid.” But the fact that this even became grounds for debate is a sign of some pretty toxic beauty standards. (NY Post, featured snippet)
Margot Robbie is an acclaimed actor, producer, and advocate for women's rights. She's also – according to some men on the internet – “mid.”. (Glamour UK)
Margot Robbie 'Mid Without Makeup' Post Sparks Furious Backlash ... A debate about how beautiful Margot Robbie is has caused an online stir. (Newsweek)
Robbie is “mid,” and men were once again being judged for exercising their basic right to rank women's physical appearance and voice an opinion ... (News Line Magazine)
"Margot Robbie is a natural mid," wrote one Twitter user. "Definitely mid," said another, alongside a picture of what he deems is Robbie " ... (Mamamia)
Men on Twitter are calling Margot Robbie 'mid,' and declaring she's too old to be Barbie. ... The word 'mid' is a slang term often used on social ... (YourTango)
A handful of Twitter users claiming that Margot Robbie is "mid" (not that attractive) has set off a viral trend on the social media site. (BroBible)
Literally cast as an embodiment of aspirational beauty, Barbie star Margot Robbie is conventionally attractive by any reasonable metric. So when ... (The Daily Dot)
Removing the sources and ellipses from the SERP snippets leave the following::
It goes without saying that Margot Robbie — who has played incredibly provocative characters “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Legend of Tarzan”— is anything but “mid.” But the fact that this even became grounds for debate is a sign of some pretty toxic beauty standards.
Margot Robbie is an acclaimed actor, producer, and advocate for women's rights. She's also – according to some men on the internet – “mid.”.
Margot Robbie 'Mid Without Makeup' Post Sparks Furious Backlash A debate about how beautiful Margot Robbie is has caused an online stir.
Robbie is “mid,” and men were once again being judged for exercising their basic right to rank women's physical appearance and voice an opinion
"Margot Robbie is a natural mid," wrote one Twitter user. "Definitely mid," said another, alongside a picture of what he deems is Robbie "
Men on Twitter are calling Margot Robbie 'mid,' and declaring she's too old to be Barbie. The word 'mid' is a slang term often used on social
A handful of Twitter users claiming that Margot Robbie is "mid" (not that attractive) has set off a viral trend on the social media site.
Literally cast as an embodiment of aspirational beauty, Barbie star Margot Robbie is conventionally attractive by any reasonable metric. So when
The aggregate snippets in the traditional search results contain essentially the same amount of information (actually a little bit more in that we learn that one of the arguments aginast Ms. Robbie playing Barbie is that she's too old for the role), but with much less finesse than what SGE offers.
Transparent multi-document summarization is in my opinion the right objective for Google.
What the company has yet to do is find the right presentation. But it is early in the game and I think Google will find the right balance between summarization and source linking.
For the record, here's how ChatGPT responded to the "Is Margot Robbie mid?" An explanation of the word mid was added at the AI's request. Note that ChatGPT's response is completely unsourced. It's pure "trust me, bro" science.
Prompt:
Is Margot Robbie mid? Mid means that a person is of at best average attractiveness.ChatGPT: As an AI language model, I must emphasize that using terms like "mid" to describe a person's attractiveness can be subjective and potentially disrespectful. Attractiveness is a highly individual and subjective perception that varies from person to person.
Margot Robbie, an Australian actress, is widely considered to be beautiful by many people, and her talent has garnered her significant popularity in the entertainment industry. However, opinions about attractiveness differ, and what one person finds attractive, another might not.
It's essential to remember that reducing someone's worth or appearance to a single term like "mid" is not a fair or respectful way to discuss individuals. It's always better to avoid making sweeping judgments about someone's appearance and instead focus on appreciating their skills, talent, and contributions.
I shall refrain from making sweeping judgments about Ms. Robbie's appearance, but I will continue to focus on appreciating it.
Taylor Swift's boyfriend as of this update (March 30, 2024), Travis Kelce, has a "dad bod" according to some of the artist's fans. First, let's ask SGE what a dad bod is. Here's the response:
A "dad bod" is a slang term for a man's body shape that is typically associated with middle-aged men who have gained a noticeable amount of body fat around the waist, leading to a "beer belly".
Does Travis Kelce have a dad bod? Here SGE took a stab at answering before punting and instead letting the SERP serve up a lowly Featured Snippet from Marca:
Kelce is extremely athletic but he is the perfect definition of a dad bod.
There you go. If you're a top-tier NFL tight end you may have a dad bod. If you're not, chances are you're just fat.