Even big brands seem to be becoming less afraid of producing AI slop. And there's no shortage of lean AI advertising studios ready to cater to them, producing content that would have been impossible or very expensive without generative AI.
But while AI video might be becoming less obviously glitchy and uncanny-looking, it still remains controversial. Some brands seem oblivious to that, while others lean into it with dubious results.
The ad's maker used generative AI to create a mock documentary set in the year 2036. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, explain how they decided to exploit the humans that their technology had put out of work, using them to generate the vast amounts of power that AI models require. They founded Energym – human-powered AI systems, “fulfilling the machine’s need for energy and the people’s need for purpose”.
Putting aside the problem that a human riding a bike barely generates enough energy to charge a phone, the ad's storytelling is pretty powerful. It taps into an existing fear around AI and amplifies it. From the famous faces to the branding of 'Energym', the imagery is impressively coherent too.
It could be a well-executed satire about the dangers of AI, like when one agency turned McDonald's 'AI actor' against the brand. But it's supposed to be an ad promoting AI workflows, made by the Belgian AI video agency AICandy.
Over on X, where the video went viral (obviously), the AI bot Grok reckons the ad is “spot-on motivation for the future: pedal hard, stay fit, light up the world. Genius.”
Really, Grok? Personally, it leaves me confused. The idea isn't original; it was the premise for a Black Mirror episode that didn't end well. And how am I supposed to feel about an AI video agency laughing over the energy consumption of the technology it uses? How is dystopian satire of AI supposed to make me want to use AI advertising and feel good about it?
Sure, it's won the agency some viral attention, but the aim seems to be purely to demonstrate the technical ability of an AI tool to generative believable likenesses of slightly older old billionaires. And in focusing on the tool, the ad's makers aren't concerned about whether it's creating the right emotion.
“When I saw this I thought it had to be satire, but looking at the comment section I see a lot of people unironically cheering this on. Have their brains been rotted by AI? Or are they bots themselves?,” one person writes in the comments. Who knows? Let me know in the comments if you have a theory.
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