AI Made It Into a Batch of Super Bowl Commercials: You Can Watch Them Here
Some Super Bowl ads celebrated the benefits of artificial intelligence, but others poked fun. We always knew the Minions were behind it.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
One Super Bowl commercial promotes Guided Frame on Pixel 8 phones, a feature that makes it easier for people with blindness or low vision to take photos.
Artificial intelligence continues to make its presence known in all sorts of ways. There's the FCC stepping in to ban AI-faked voices in robocalls; Paul McCartney using AI to create the final Beatles song; and a growing list of products you can use, from ChatGPT and Google's Gemini to special-purpose GPTs. AI showed up at Sunday's Super Bowl as well, in some of the highly anticipated commercials airing during the championship game, which the Kansas City Chiefs won 25-22 in overtime against the San Francisco 49ers.
Some ads highlighted how AI helps their products, others used AI to actually make their ads, and at least one poked fun at AI. Then the Minions got involved. Here's a look at the AI-related ads. Be sure to also check out our roundup of all the Super Bowl ads.
Microsoft Copilot: Watch Me
Microsoft's commercial promotes Copilot, the company's AI assistant found in Windows 11, and plays off the idea that AI will replace artists and creatives. In this ad, people call on AI to help them complete their movie or video game, or study for a chemistry test.
Google's Pixel 8: Javier in Frame
We live in a selfie- and camera phone-focused age, but you may never have thought about how those with impaired vision are able to take photos. Google features an accessibility feature called Guided Frame for its Pixel 8 smartphone, using Google AI to alert them about when and how many faces are in the frame. Director Adam Morse, who is blind, explains the feature in his Super Bowl ad. The commercial ends with a voice-over by musician Stevie Wonder, who is also blind.
CrowdStrike: The Future
Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike travels back to the Old West in an ad showcasing how it uses AI for security. When creepy Star Wars-looking robots try to attack the town, a lone woman armed with CrowdStrike's AI-powered cybersecurity shuts them down fast.
Etsy: Gift Mode
Ah, it's always a good time to poke (gentle) fun at the French. In Etsy's Super Bowl ad, Americans about to receive the Statue of Liberty use Etsy's AI-powered gift mode to decide what to give back to their French friends. Spoiler: It's cheese.
Despicable Me 4: Minion Intelligence
Those wacky yellow Minions and their beloved leader Gru will return in Despicable Me 4, hitting US theaters on July 3. The full movie trailer has already been released (Gru has a new baby!), but the movie's Super Bowl ad showed who's really behind AI. Yep, it's the Minions, yukking it up as they create creepy images of people riding giant dachshunds, handshakes with way too many fingers, and oddly limbed grannies doing yoga -- or something.
Avocados from Mexico: Guac-AI-mole site
Avocados from Mexico has made some of the funnier Super Bowl ads in recent years. (In 2015, a college football draft spoof showed Australia drafting the kangaroo, the US going for wheat, and Mexico, of course, avocados.) There wasn't a Super Bowl ad this year, but its website was hyping "Guac-AI-mole," where AI generates guacamole recipes based on information submitted by users.
Body Armor: Field of Fake
There's also at least one ad that used AI sheerly to poke fun at the concept. If you've watched enough AI-assisted videos, you know that some can be unnervingly bad, with creepy voice-overs and obviously fake creatures and humans. The Coca-Cola-owned sports drink BodyArmor tackles that aspect of AI, spouting random AI-sounding lines such as "Teammate Trust Tackle Ball" and showing a football player dunking a basketball on the gridiron. The commercial then sneers, "Artificial? No!" and proclaims that "nothing in sports should be artificial" before plugging the "real sweeteners, real flavors" of its drinks.
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