New Google Ad Imagines America's 'Declaration of Independence' Written With AI Help
3 68An 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."
3 comments
Re: How many beers? A LOT (Score: 5, Funny)
by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday July 05, 2026 @03:50AM (#66223096)
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.
The Founding Fathers would not have used Google Wo (Score: 5, Informative)
by Ghostworks ( 991012 ) on Sunday July 05, 2026 @12:58AM (#66222996)
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.
Oh really, google? (Score: 5, Interesting)
by T34L ( 10503334 ) on Sunday July 05, 2026 @01:45AM (#66223032)
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.