Two hundred and fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a new Google commercial asks: What if the Founding Fathers had access to Google Workspace? With the tagline “Group project, but make it 1776,” the ad shows a mid-draft, virtually invisible Thomas Jefferson receiving an annoying text from Ben Franklin, leading to
Two hundred and fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a new Google commercial asks: What if the Founding Fathers had access to Google Workspace?
With the tagline “Group project, but make it 1776,” the ad shows a mid-draft, virtually invisible Thomas Jefferson receiving an annoying text from Ben Franklin, leading to a very Google-centric collaboration process. Edits are suggested in Google Docs, a meeting is scheduled in Google Calendar and held remotely via Google Meet (with each attendee apparently turning off their camera?), then everything is finalized with electronic signatures; Cue the fireworks.
Of course, since this is an announcement from a tech company in the year 2026, AI has a role to play. The fictional founders use Google’s “help me visualize” AI tool to test different animals on the national seal, Gemini takes notes on the meeting, and the founders also ask the chatbot for advice before rejecting the request for access to King George III’s document.
The whole thing is very tongue-in-cheek (at one point, Sam Adams asks, “Can we settle this over a few beers?”), and the AI evangelism is relatively low-key compared to many other recent announcements. And unlike the infamous Google commercial in which a father uses Gemini to write a fan letter to his daughter, this one avoids any suggestion that the actual text of the Declaration of Independence could be improved with AI. Perhaps the most AI-advanced element of the ad is the footage itself, which in my opinion has the strange glow of AI-generated video.
While viewer comments on YouTube and Instagram seem to be mostly positive, you might not be surprised to learn that the response on Bluesky has been much more critical. Posters declared the commercial to be “embarrassing” and “shockingly tone-deaf”, with the AI angle being the main focus, even as many users, including historian Angus Johnston, noted that it is “surprising how little of this is actually AI”.
“Even in a corny fantasy joke, it’s impossible to argue that AI is a useful tool for political organizing, writing, or human collaboration,” Johnston said.
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