The Super Bowl has always been a stage for brands to shape public perception, and this year, Big Tech had a clear agenda: make AI feel like your friendly, everyday assistant. Google, OpenAI, Meta, and even Salesforce rolled out high-budget ads designed to humanize artificial intelligence—but the results were mixed at best.
Google’s Gemini ads leaned heavily on sentimentality, showcasing AI’s role in job prep, though the advice (“sound more confident”) was hardly groundbreaking. A separate ad featuring a boyfriend using AI to fake football knowledge at his girlfriend’s Super Bowl party only made him look ridiculous. OpenAI, in its first-ever Super Bowl spot, tried to compare AI to humanity’s greatest innovations—only to quietly admit that human designers had to refine the AI-generated ad.
Meta took a celebrity-heavy approach, featuring Chris Pratt, Chris Hemsworth, and Kris Jenner to promote its Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, portraying them as the ultimate hands-free assistant. Yet, the ad conveniently ignored privacy concerns about an always-on recording device. Meanwhile, Salesforce brought back Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, this time to support AI rather than push back against tech overreach—an ironic pivot from McConaughey’s 2022 Super Bowl ad that warned against losing ourselves in technology.
Even the ads meant to reassure us about AI only raised more concerns. Google faced backlash over "Gouda-Gate," when its AI falsely claimed Gouda accounted for 50% of all cheese consumption, underscoring the tech’s misinformation problem. And Salesforce’s AI-powered restaurant assistant ad left audiences scratching their heads over its actual usefulness.
As AI continues to infiltrate daily life, these Super Bowl ads suggest tech giants are desperate to win over a skeptical public. But can AI truly enhance our lives, or is this just another push for corporate control? The debate is far from over.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Photo Credit: Google/AI/Meta/FTX
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