From Super Creepy to Not So Bad: An AI Ethicist’s Tired, Honest Take on This Year’s Super Bowl 2026 AI Ads
By Susan Sly
I was exhausted when I finally sat down to watch the Super Bowl.
The week leading up to it had been a blur: speaking at Davos on AI and humanity, then heading straight to Boston for a screening of The M Factor 2.0 – a film I’m featured in, discussing AI ethics, hosted by Whoop! From there, I went directly into a keynote on AI ethics for the wellness company Isagenix. By the time I got home, all I wanted was something grounding and familiar. So I made homemade enchiladas for my family, curled up on the sofa, and settled in – equal parts tired and curious.
I was genuinely looking forward to the commercials.
This year, Super Bowl 2026 promised a showdown of AI companies – each with massive budgets and an even bigger cultural responsibility. As an AI ethicist and a daily user of these tools, I was hopeful. I expected nuance. Thoughtfulness. Maybe even restraint.
What I didn’t expect was how disappointing so many of the ads would feel, or how loudly I would find myself cheering for the ones that simply showed real humans being human. My unfiltered opinion of the AI companies searching for customers, and at times – meaning, seemed ridiculous at times. One stood out however the rest, and I had to add the horrific Sveda Vodka robot commercial, were an exercise in futility which only goes to show that we are not ‘there’ yet.
Here is my review of this year’s Super Bowl 2026 AI Company Ads:
Ring: Finding Lost Pets—and Our Moral Compass
The ad that stood out most to me came from Ring (ring.com), and not because it tried to impress anyone with technological bravado.
Ring focused on its “Search Party” feature, telling stories of neighbors coming together to help find lost pets. If you’ve ever lost an animal, you know how visceral that fear is. The ad tapped into something deeply emotional and profoundly human: community care. Plus, let’s face it – people love their pets. We have two cats and a dog. It was easy to connect with this computer vision (my past area of focus) feature that promises to bring home our lost fur babies – relatable and not creepy whatsoever even though I fully understand the other use cases for Search Party.
I digress, AI was present, but it wasn’t the hero. The hero was the collective effort of people watching out for one another and technology quietly supporting rather than dominating the moment.
From an AI ethics perspective, this is what responsible storytelling looks like. The technology stays in service to empathy. It doesn’t overshadow it.
🎥 Watch/search the Ring “Search Party” Super Bowl ad on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ring+Search+Party+Super+Bowl+commercial
Amazon Alexa: Laughing at the Fear Instead of Ignoring It
Amazon Alexa (amazon.com/alexa) leaned into humor, starring Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky. The premise was AI getting a little too powerful which mirrors a real, unspoken anxiety many people carry.
What worked here wasn’t the joke itself, but the acknowledgment. The ad didn’t pretend those fears don’t exist. Instead, it diffused them by showing Alexa as practical, supportive, and ultimately benign even offering to find a spa service for Mr. Hemsworth.
Ethically, that matters. Fear doesn’t disappear when you ignore it. It softens when it’s named. The human – Hemsworth fighting a bear – doesn’t diminish the reality that AI could indeed take control of our homes if untethered.
🎥 Watch/search the Alexa Super Bowl ad on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Alexa+Super+Bowl+Hemsworth+Pataky
Microsoft Copilot: Augmentation Done Right
Microsoft Copilot (microsoft.com/copilot) quietly delivered one of the most responsible ads of the night. No gimmicks. No spectacle. Just professionals using AI to search smarter, synthesize faster, and make better decisions.
This ad clearly positioned AI as a tool, not a replacement. As an ethicist, that distinction is everything. Copilot didn’t erase human agency, it enhanced it.
🎥 Watch/search the Copilot Super Bowl ad on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Microsoft+Copilot+Super+Bowl+commercial
Google Gemini: Emotion Without Direction
Google Gemini (ai.google/gemini) attempted to tug at the heartstrings with a mother and daughter designing a new home together. The ad was warm and visually appealing and alsovague.
While emotion can humanize AI, it can’t replace clarity. The role of Gemini remained abstract, leaving viewers with a feeling rather than an understanding. Ethical trust is built not just on sentiment, but on transparency.
🎥 Watch/search the Gemini Super Bowl ad on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Google+Gemini+Super+Bowl+commercial
Anthropic Claude: Intentionally Creepy, Intellectually Honest
Anthropic’s Claude (anthropic.com) went in the opposite direction – deliberately unsettling. The ads satirized AI assistants interrupted by intrusive advertising, leaning hard into the uncanny.
It was creepy. It was uncomfortable. And it was intentional.
From an ethics standpoint, Claude’s message was clear: Monetization choices shape user experience—and not always for the better. The risk, of course, is that some viewers may miss the critique and only feel disturbed. From a creepy ‘ick’ factor – the therapist mocking ChatGPT and then offering up a senior dating service, did its job however as a fan of Anthropic, I would advice that they show us what the tool does and not just what the competitors may do wrong.
Still, I respect the willingness to provoke a necessary conversation.
🎥 Watch/search the Claude Super Bowl ads on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Anthropic+Claude+Super+Bowl+ad
OpenAI: “You Can Just Build Things”—But What Does That Mean?
OpenAI (openai.com) clearly wanted to avoid being creepy or weird and succeeded. Perhaps too well.
Their ad, “You Can Just Build Things,” felt vanilla and pedestrian. As a ChatGPT super-user and early adopter, I found myself asking: Build what? How? Why now?
The phrase sounds empowering, but without specificity, it lacks substance. Ethically, it felt like a normalization play—an attempt to make AI feel safe by saying very little at all. The result was an ad that didn’t offend, but also didn’t inspire.
🎥 Watch/search the OpenAI Super Bowl ad on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=OpenAI+You+Can+Just+Build+Things+Super+Bowl
Genspark: Automation Without Humanity
Genspark (genspark.ai) leaned into a message that made me uncomfortable: “Let Genspark Autopilot Your Work.”
There was no acknowledgment of collaboration, reskilling, or human contribution – just efficiency. The underlying question felt unavoidable: If AI can do the work, why use humans at all? Matthew Broderick looked all too happy letting AI do his work. Does he not understand that the ad only serves to illustrate that humans are completely unnecessary other than giving the odd prompt? If the humans do not need to work, the company does not need to pay them.
That framing amplifies fear rather than trust, and from an ethics perspective, it misses the moment entirely.
🎥 Watch/search the Genspark Super Bowl ad on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Genspark+Super+Bowl+commercial
Svedka Vodka: AI for Shock Value Alone
Finally, Svedka (svedka.com) delivered what I can only describe as a waste of money. The largely AI-generated ad was creepy, chaotic, and devoid of meaning. The AI generated robots dancing – eew! I still shudder remembering it.
Using AI simply because it’s novel isn’t innovation – it’s noise. And in a year where audiences are already fatigued by artificiality, this landed with a thud.
🎥 Watch/search the Svedka AI Super Bowl ad on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Svedka+AI+Super+Bowl+ad
Final Thoughts: Cheering for Humanity
As I sat there—tired, full of enchiladas, and deeply immersed in this work—I realized something surprising: I wasn’t rooting for the best AI.
I was rooting for the best humans.
The ads that worked led with empathy, clarity, and restraint. The ones that failed treated AI as spectacle or shortcut. Ethical AI isn’t just about how systems are built—it’s about how they’re introduced, framed, and woven into our collective story.
This year’s Super Bowl showed us how much work is still left to do. And it reminded me why, even after Davos and keynotes and long weeks on the road, this conversation matters.
Because the future of AI shouldn’t feel creepy.
It should feel human.
