Microsoft has just published the commercial that it will broadcast during the next one Super Bowl, the most anticipated sporting event of the year in America. It’s a thought-provoking 60 seconds.
Not only because for the first time the Redmond company is not focusing on a physical product, such as a computer or an Xbox console for video games, but on a service: generative artificial intelligence.
But above all because, in this deliberately emotional minutethe stories of redemption of the protagonists of advertising are not marked by effort and human sweat but by the use of what can be defined as a magical “shortcut”: CopilotMocrosoft’s AI that can write and produce images like a human would.
In the clip there are alternating boys who seem destined for failure:
“They say I will never open my own business“
“They say I’ll never graduate”
“They say I will never make my own film”
“They say I’m too old to learn anything”
These are all statements that, in theory, can be completely overturned thanks to the use of generative AI, which allows anyone to realize their idea. Simply describe it with text and the AI will do most of the work.
This is exactly the point.
The plot of the advertisement Microsoft it is striking because on the road that leads to realization there are no longer (only) human sacrifices but the services of a machine.
“Look at me now” says each protagonist at the end of the commercial, referring to how they use Copilot to enhance his work.
But ultimately, what are we looking at? None of them really “proved” anything. If anything, it is the technology, in this case, that demonstrates to be able to change their lives.
AI Copilot Pro, Microsoft’s generative artificial intelligence is available to everyone by Bruno Ruffilli 15 January 2024
It is still an advert, and Microsoft rightly has its interests in mind, but it must be said that in the past the company co-founded by Bill Gates he produced more convincing stories.
In 2019, for example, again for the Super Bowl, the tech giant commissioned an advert focused on a special controller for Xbox which made the world of video games more inclusive.
In that case Micorsoft focused on true stories, those of children with disabilities who, in the absence of adequate technological support, would probably never have been able to play.
It is perhaps a pinch of experience that is missing from Microsoft’s advertising. Like the one at the base of memorable P&G commercials designed for the Olympics, where human support – that of a mother – allows future athletes to accomplish extraordinary feats. Businesses built on hard training.
The new commercial on Microsoft’s AI, however, gives the idea that without Copilot – and more generally without generative AI – people will have more difficulty making their dreams come true. And to avoid failure.
Artificial intelligence can be an amazing tool for those who want to improve themselves and increase their productivity.
Artificial intelligence The best free apps to generate texts and images with AI by Pier Luigi Pisa 02 January 2024
But there is still a limit to what technology can do. Just think about the “hallucinations” that generative AI still suffers from, serious errors that can have a lethal impact on a company’s business.
Of course, the answers “invented” by AI in many cases they can also be dodged. As? With study. Yes, the hard study that allows you to interpret what a machine produces. And not to rely completely – and blindly – on his answers.
In short, the Microsoft commercial for the Super Bowl 2024 tells only part of a future in which the best professional results will be obtained with the right balance of human skills and technological resources.