“Group project, but make it 1776.” That’s how Google’s new Workspace commercial opens. It goes downhill from there.
The ad imagines the founding fathers using Google’s collaboration tools and Gemini to draft the Declaration of Independence. Ben Franklin texts Jefferson about a draft. Jefferson snaps a photo and uses AI to transcribe it into a Google Doc. Franklin and Adams make edits in suggestion mode. Gemini finds them a meeting time and takes notes during a Google Meet call. Then someone whips up a US seal featuring a turkey.
It ends with the founders asking Gemini whether to give King George III edit access. Which should make Americans of every political stripe want to throw their phones out a window.
The internet’s reaction was predictable. TechCrunch called it “ill-advised.” CUNY history professor Angus Johnston put it simply: “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.”
It’s cringe. It’s dumb. And it makes you wonder what Gemini would’ve said if the founders asked about women’s voting rights or slavery.
