Meta put out an ad for their AI. I believe there are longer versions, but this is the one that came up for me a shocking amount of times as a youtube ad. Every time I see it, I can't help but think that AI had a significant hand in writing this commercial.
In the commercial, people sit down on a sofa at a social gathering. The host steps outside to talk to her phone and asks "Hey Meta, Can I get some discussion starters for Moby-Dick" which replies with "Here are some topics: revenge and morality". She sits down with her nautically-dressed friends and says "Lets start with revenge". Everyone thinks that's a great idea and seem to be having a great time.
There are so many things odd about this. First is the absolute insanity of picking Moby-Dick as a book club book for people you like. Maybe I should go back to it, but that tome was a slog. Interesting, and important, but so strange. And it seems that my desire to not read Moby-Dick is also shared by the protagonist of this commercial. Ma'am! Did you consider reading the book? Because while it's a strange novel there are a bunch of things that have stuck in my head even a decade later. Here's my top three list of discussion starters:
- "Call me Ishmael" is an all timer of an opening line.
- This book is only good when it's about Queequeg.
- I'm absolutely certain that if Herman Melville was given an opportunity, he would make passionate love to a whale.
That last one is the big take away. I stand by it. Melville loves whales, or more honestly, he loves the idea of whaling. He is absolutely obsessed with it. And that's kinda fascinating. So much of the book is just the daily life on the ship, that when something exciting and Ahab related happens it's still an event. But the only parts of that book that have seeped into pop culture are, well, the revenge bits. The people who are trying to show us that their AI is so capable can only come up with a topic that could have been extracted from watching a bit from Animaniacs? This is your intelligent, convenient AI? Revenge is what everyone who has heard of Moby-Dick knows about it. Morality is an interesting pick though, in that it's kinda meaningless in that every cautionary tale is kinda about morality. And that's the best example anyone could think up to put in a commercial.
Anyway, this commercial that supposed to sell us a tool to make good decisions, shows us a person who inflicts an insufferable book on her friends and asks an AI at the last moment for information that could be found on the back cover of the book they never picked up.
Anyway, I'm glad all the actors probably got paid. I wonder if the writers did. Or maybe that's just the best anyone could do trying to sell something that is mostly unhelpful except as a way to cheat on tests and as a tech demo.