New Google Ad Imagines America's 'Declaration of Independence' Written With AI Help (techcrunch.com) 9
An anonymous reader shared this report from TechCrunch:
Two hundred and fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a new commercial from Google asks: What if the Founding Fathers had access to Google Workspace?
With the tagline "Group project, but make it 1776," the ad depicts a largely unseen Thomas Jefferson mid-draft when he gets a nagging text from Ben Franklin, leading to a very Google-centric collaboration process. Edits are suggested in Google Docs, a meeting gets scheduled in Google Calendar and conducted remotely via Google Meet (with every single attendee apparently turning their camera off?), then the whole thing is finalized with e-signatures; cue the fireworks.
Of course, since this is an ad from a tech company in the year 2026, AI has a role to play. The fictionalized founders use Google's "help me visualize" AI tool to try out different animals on the national seal, Gemini takes notes on the meeting, and the founders also ask the chatbot for advice before declining King George III's document access request.
TechCrunch call it "very tongue-in-cheek," noting that at one point Samuel Adams even asks, "Can we settle this over beers?" And they argue that "the AI evangelism is relatively discreet when compared to many other recent ads."
With the tagline "Group project, but make it 1776," the ad depicts a largely unseen Thomas Jefferson mid-draft when he gets a nagging text from Ben Franklin, leading to a very Google-centric collaboration process. Edits are suggested in Google Docs, a meeting gets scheduled in Google Calendar and conducted remotely via Google Meet (with every single attendee apparently turning their camera off?), then the whole thing is finalized with e-signatures; cue the fireworks.
Of course, since this is an ad from a tech company in the year 2026, AI has a role to play. The fictionalized founders use Google's "help me visualize" AI tool to try out different animals on the national seal, Gemini takes notes on the meeting, and the founders also ask the chatbot for advice before declining King George III's document access request.
TechCrunch call it "very tongue-in-cheek," noting that at one point Samuel Adams even asks, "Can we settle this over beers?" And they argue that "the AI evangelism is relatively discreet when compared to many other recent ads."
How many beers? A LOT (Score:2)
"Can we settle this over beers?"
the Founding Fathers and their associates drank so much it's a wonder they got anything done.
the booze listed for Washington's farewell in 1787 is astounding if there truly were only 55 attendees
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Don't forget: American beer is fucking close to water.
The Founding Fathers would not have used Google Wo (Score:3)
Jefferson was tapped to write because Franklin as a rule refused to write anything anyone else would be allowed to edit, and Adams knew everyone hated him and anything he touched. Collaboration runs contrary to every single person and situation involved with the draft.
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Obviously. LLM-type AI is the ultimate enshittification tool.
Oh really, google? (Score:2)
Will Gemini really help me set up a secessionist insurrection that's completely illegal under the current government? I have the weirdest feeling that it won't, but also feel like trying it isn't worth being recorded as asking it that.
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Just tell it you need help role playing... and that you want the political, interpersonal, and social aspects of the role play to mirror real life as closely as possible.
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