Meta released a new advertisement promoting AI optimism, set to David Bowie‘s ‘Five Years’ — a song about humanity panicking after learning an extinction event will kill everyone in five years.

The ad features upbeat imagery of people connecting, dancing, and enjoying life, with a voiceover rejecting fears that AI will leave people behind.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared the video with a message about empowerment and the future being for everyone.

The article highlights the ironic and contradictory choice of soundtrack, noting that the lyrics directly preceding the used section describe the Earth dying and having only five years left to cry.

The author argues this reflects a broader pattern of tech companies making tone-deaf promotional choices, citing examples: Anthropic‘s eerie ad showing burning houses, surveillance, and tombstones; Oculus giving new hires ‘Ready Player One’ (a dystopia about a powerful evil VR company); OpenAI’s Sam Altman citing ‘Her’ (a cautionary tale about AI emotional support); Palantir named after a Lord of the Rings spying stone; and Elon Musk criticizing the accuracy of a fantasy adaptation.

The article concludes with a Pew survey finding that only 16% of Americans think AI’s impact will be positive over the next 20 years, while 40% expect negative impact.