Two hundred and fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, asks a new ad from Google: What if the Founders had access to Google Workspace?
With the tagline “Group project, but make it 1776,” the ad depicts a mostly unseen Thomas Jefferson in the middle of the project when he receives a disturbing text from Ben Franklin, leading to a very Google-centric collaborative process. Changes are proposed in Google Docs, a meeting is scheduled in Google Calendar and conducted remotely via Google Meet (with each participant apparently turning off their camera?), and then the whole thing is finalized with electronic signatures. cue the fireworks.
Of course, since this is an ad from a tech company in the year 2026, artificial intelligence has a role to play. The fictional founders use Google’s “help me visualize” AI tool to test different animals on the national seal, Gemini takes notes on the meeting, and the founders also ask the chatbot for advice before rejecting a request for access to King George III documents.
The whole thing is very spontaneous (at one point, Sam Adams asks, “Can we solve this with beers?”), and the AI evangelism is relatively subtle compared to many other recent ads. And unlike that infamous Google ad in which a father uses Gemini to write a fan letter for his daughter, this one avoids any suggestion that the actual text of the Declaration of Independence would be enhanced by artificial intelligence. Perhaps the most artificial element of the ad is the footage itself, which in my opinion has the incredible sheen of AI-generated video.
While the viewer comments YouTube and Instagram seems to be mostly positive, you might not be surprised to learn that the response to Bluesky has been much more critical. Posters said the brand was “crunchy” and “stunningly dumb” and the AI angle was the biggest target — even those users, including historian Angus Johnstonnoted that it is “amazing how little of this is actually AI”.
“Even in a funny fantasy joke, it’s impossible to argue that artificial intelligence is a useful tool for political organizing, writing, or human cooperation,” Johnston said.
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