New Google commercial imagines a Declaration of Independence written with help from AI

谷歌新广告设想：如果《独立宣言》是在人工智能的帮助下起草的会怎样？

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. 在《独立宣言》签署 250 年后，谷歌的一则新广告提出了一个问题：如果开国元勋们能使用 Google Workspace 会怎样？这则广告的标语是“小组作业，但背景是 1776 年”。广告中，托马斯·杰斐逊（Thomas Jefferson）正在起草文件，突然收到了本·富兰克林（Ben Franklin）发来的催促短信，随后展开了一场极具“谷歌特色”的协作过程。

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. 文档修改在 Google Docs 中完成，会议通过 Google Calendar 安排并经由 Google Meet 远程进行（所有参会者似乎都关掉了摄像头？），最后通过电子签名完成定稿；随后烟花绽放。当然，由于这是 2026 年一家科技公司的广告，人工智能自然也扮演了重要角色。

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. The whole thing is very tongue-in-cheek (at one point, Sam Adams asks, “Can we settle this over beers?”), and the AI evangelism is relatively discreet when compared to many other recent ads. 虚构的开国元勋们使用谷歌的“帮我可视化”（help me visualize）AI 工具来尝试国玺上的不同动物图案，Gemini 负责会议记录，元勋们还在拒绝乔治三世国王的文档访问请求前向聊天机器人寻求建议。整个广告充满了调侃意味（其中一个桥段是塞缪尔·亚当斯问：“我们能边喝啤酒边解决这个问题吗？”），与近期许多其他广告相比，其对 AI 的宣传相对克制。

And unlike that infamous Google commercial in which a father uses Gemini to write a fan letter for his daughter, this one shies away from any suggestion that the actual text of the Declaration of Independence would be improved with AI. Perhaps the most AI-forward element of the ad is the footage itself, which to my eye has the uncanny glow of AI-generated video. 与那则臭名昭著的谷歌广告（一位父亲使用 Gemini 为女儿写粉丝信）不同，这则广告避免了暗示《独立宣言》的原文可以通过 AI 得到改进。或许这则广告中最具“AI 感”的部分是画面本身，在我看来，它带有一种 AI 生成视频特有的诡异光泽。

While viewer comments on YouTube and Instagram appear to be mostly positive, you may not be surprised to learn that the response on Bluesky has been far more critical. Posters declared the commercial “cringey” and “stunningly tone deaf,” and the AI angle was the biggest target — even as many users, including historian Angus Johnston, noted that it’s “amazing how little of this is actually AI.” 虽然 YouTube 和 Instagram 上的观众评论大多持正面态度，但你可能不会感到惊讶的是，Bluesky 上的反应要严厉得多。用户称这则广告“令人尴尬”且“极其不合时宜”，AI 元素成为了主要的抨击目标——尽管包括历史学家安格斯·约翰斯顿（Angus Johnston）在内的许多用户指出，“令人惊讶的是，这里面实际用到 AI 的地方少之又少。”

“Even in a corny fantasy joke, it’s impossible to make the case that AI is a useful tool for political organizing, writing, or human collaboration,” Johnston said. 约翰斯顿表示：“即使是在一个俗气的幻想笑话里，也无法证明 AI 是政治组织、写作或人类协作的有效工具。”