New Google Ad Imagines America's 'Declaration of Independence' Written With AI Help (techcrunch.com)
- Reference: 0184312376
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/07/05/0417243/new-google-ad-imagines-americas-declaration-of-independence-written-with-ai-help
- Source link: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/04/new-google-commercial-imagines-a-declaration-of-independence-written-with-help-from-ai/
> Two hundred and fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a [2]new commercial from Google asks: What if the Founding Fathers had access to Google Workspace?
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> 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.
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> 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 [3]many other recent ads ."
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/04/new-google-commercial-imagines-a-declaration-of-independence-written-with-help-from-ai/
[2] https://youtu.be/Q3RjZY-rSsc?si=SClf2-jRPDr76zTR
[3] https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/08/super-bowl-60-ai-ads-svedka-anthropic-brands-commercials/
The Founding Fathers would not have used Google Wo (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure it can be made worse with AI.
Re: (Score:2)
Obviously. LLM-type AI is the ultimate enshittification tool.
Oh really, google? (Score:3)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Just use DeepSeek. As long as you don't mention Madison Square it will do all you ask, no problem.
I'm tired of AI being put into inapproprite places (Score:2)
I'm tired of AI being put into inappropriate places without permission. Advertisements like this are a bigger sign of Silicon Valley having transitioned from "move fast and break" to "fuck you ask ask why you don't like it." I don't want to have to question if the "photos" I get from a love one are ai generated. I don't want to wonder if a text I received some someone is their actual thoughts. We use AI for the things we don't care about and it implies a lot of about the people using it. It would also i
Why did I have to know this? (Score:3)
Why exactly did I have to know about some tech company having some ad with some overhyped technology used in making it? By same measure we should describe every second Tiktok trash here.
gotta love AI generated ads (Score:4, Interesting)
The voices sound artificial, the backgrounds are all copied from major brands or infamous podcasters, and they've generated one for every every city so they all sound like a political campaign flunky on your doorstep proclaiming the benefits of the product for you in your city. If I watch the video from the same computer and browser proxied through my company vpn, I get the same ad with a different colour person and a different city which corresponds to my company's proxy address.
America's Independence (Score:2)
...from the rest of the world, it seems.
How many beers? A LOT (Score:3)
"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
Re: (Score:2)
Don't forget: American beer is fucking close to water.
Re: How many beers? A LOT (Score:2)
People drank small beer in the Colonial era like it was Coca-cola. Popular among women and children especially.
What happened to American beer and ale and cider was a 20th century catastrophe known as Prohibition.
Despite our terrible beer, we have quite a few good cocktail recipes. Again thanks to Prohibition for that.
Re: (Score:3)
> Despite our terrible beer, we have quite a few good cocktail recipes. Again thanks to Prohibition for that.
Here's one - Trump's Reflecting Pool:
2 oz. rum
4 oz pineapple juice
1 oz blue curaçao
handful blueberries, mashed then torn
- Place ice in a rocks glass.
- Add rum and blue curaçao; stir.
- Quickly pour in pineapple juice (don't stir!), then top with torn mashed blueberries.