Meta’s AI optimism ad features a soundtrack about mass extinction

The advertisement opens with black-and-white footage of panicked headlines about AI-induced job loss and social isolation. It quickly pivots to vibrant, color-saturated scenes of people dancing, swimming, and embracing, accompanied by a voiceover declaring that the company is “betting on people.” While the visuals aim for inspiration, the choice of soundtrack reveals a profound disconnect. Bowie’s “Five Years,” which documents a world grappling with its final days before annihilation, seems to have been selected solely for its repetitive use of the word “people.”

This oversight highlights a recurring trend in the tech industry: a tendency to adopt cultural touchstones without understanding their underlying context. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared the video, reiterating his belief that the future of AI is for everyone. Yet, this follows a long history of tech executives drawing inspiration from dystopian fiction. From Palantir taking its name from a surveillance tool used by a dark lord in Tolkien’s work to the promotion of novels like Ready Player One, the industry frequently co-opts stories that serve as cautionary warnings against the very power they seek to consolidate. Meta is not alone in these promotional missteps; competitors like Anthropic have also faced ridicule for advertisements that inadvertently highlight the anxieties surrounding their technology. Despite these marketing efforts, public sentiment remains largely skeptical, with a recent Pew survey indicating that only 16% of Americans expect a positive impact from AI in the coming decades.