Meta's AI Optimism Ad Uses Song About Human Extinction
Meta released an ad promoting AI optimism, but its soundtrack is David Bowie's “Five Years,” a song about humanity facing extinction in five years, creating an ironic contradiction.
Meta has launched a new advertisement celebrating the positive potential of artificial intelligence, but the choice of background music creates an unexpected irony. The ad opens with a black-and-white shot of an eye reading panicked headlines about AI threats. It then shifts to color, showing happy people dancing, swimming, and embracing, while a voiceover speaks about optimism and betting on people.
However, the soundtrack is David Bowie's song “Five Years,” which describes humanity panicking after learning they have five years left before a mass extinction event. The lyrics include lines like “Earth was really dying” and “we had five years left to cry in.” A journalist asked his brother, a blockchain analyst, to interpret the song; he guessed climate change, zombie apocalypse, or an asteroid strike.
This is not the first time tech companies have made ironic communication missteps. Meta previously gave new hires copies of “Ready Player One,” a dystopian novel where a VR tech company becomes overly powerful. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has cited inspiration from the movie “Her,” which warns about AI emotional support dangers. Palantir is named after a seeing stone from “Lord of the Rings” used by the Dark Lord to spy.
Meta is not alone in releasing odd ads. Anthropic recently published a video featuring a burning house, surveillance, homelessness, and tombstones, trying to show it understands AI risks. OpenAI's CEO called it satire. Public sentiment toward AI remains negative: only 16% of Americans think AI will have a positive impact over the next 20 years, while 40% expect a negative one.
