Superbowl AI + Severanced Muppet

4:41

Dr. Ryan Ries here, and I’m writing this week’s Matrix after watching the Super Bowl. Between all the pick 6’s and Eagles obliterating the Chiefs, AI dominated Super Bowl LVIII's commercial lineup.

I figured it’d be fun this week to include my thoughts about all the AI multi-million dollar ad spots.

Quick announcement first: I’m hosting another Gen AI Ask Me Anything session on February 25th. Jonathan LaCour, Mission CTO, and I will be answering all your questions about AI. Register here and join us!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Meta's Ray-Ban Smart Glasses spot was a miss

Overall, I had a general sense of “meh” about this year’s Super Bowl ads.

But as someone deeply invested in AR, Meta’s ad just felt like a massive waste of money.

Featuring Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, and Kris Jenner in an art gallery seemed clever on paper (I guess?), but most viewers were left confused about the product. The story they were poking fun at is very niche, and I’m not sure many have even heard about it.

It doesn't matter to their budget, but Meta would’ve been better suited to spend that $10mil price tag on improving their tech, in my opinion.

Google had an interesting Super Bowl journey

Google pulled their original cheese mart ad due to Gemini hallucinating about gouda statistics. You can watch the original ad here, but they edited the video to remove the fake stats.

Google stated that the stat came from cheese.com which does state Gouda is 50-60% of the cheese market. This shows how key accurate information is when developing your GenAI system.

If you are creating a chatbot you need to ensure your data is up to date and accurate.

Data management is often poorly executed for many systems where people are making multiple copies of the data. The GenAI system, if not prompted correctly to do deduplication, can give you random answers pulled from different duplicate files based on which one the similarity search feels is the closest match.

Let's go back to Google and our Gouda conundrum. When you ask Gemini for a breakdown of the world cheese market you get that they are at 6-9% of the market, a far cry from 50-60%!

I found that irony pretty amazing.

Anyways, the heartwarming Google Pixel ad about a father using AI while juggling work and parenting that Google ended up using landed much better.

Still, I think the original small business focus would've resonated more with potential AI adopters.

OpenAI’s first Super Bowl ad

Speaking of hallucinations - OpenAI's debut Super Bowl commercial was really cool.

I mostly enjoy the funny ads during the Super Bowl but I loved their black-and-white pointillism animation showing technological advancements throughout human history.

Many people are fearful of AI and its ability to handle tasks that only humans can perform, but we need to remember that all major innovations started this way.

Salesforce’s ad was entertaining but told me nothing about Agentforce

Salesforce attempted to demonstrate what "AI was meant to be" with Matthew McConaughey rushing through Heathrow Airport.

While definitely relatable, the ad didn’t really explain how Agentforce could actually transform stressful situations.

So, I guess if Salesforce’s goal was to have us all googling what Agentforce actually does, they accomplished that!

GoDaddy switched it up this year

Does anyone remember GoDaddy’s raunchy ads from the 2010s?

Those ads, though pretty audacious, definitely got people’s attention!

This year, GoDaddy struck the right balance with Walton Goggins promoting their "Airo" AI tool. I thought they did a nice job translating the message – you don't need to be a tech or web expert to leverage AI and GoDaddy’s tool for your business.

Cirkul, who?

Lastly, Adam Devine and Cirkul.

I had never heard of Cirkul until their Super Bowl ad.

One of my coworkers actually received one of Cirkul's 100,000 free water bottles on her front porch

Sunday evening from their “AI mishap” ad.

Any Matrix readers get one, too? Let me know!

Until next time,
Ryan Ries

Now time for this week’s image and prompt I used to generate it.

image-Feb-11-2025-05-35-23-0664-PM "Generate an image of a Muppet walking the halls of Lumon Industries, matching the style of the show Severance.The muppet is wearing a dress shirt, dress pants, and a tie. He has decided he no longer wants to be Severed, so he is frustrated and trying to pull his brain out."