Coca-Cola causes controversy with AI-made ad

Coca-Cola is facing backlash online over an artificial intelligence-made Christmas promotional video that users are calling “soulless” and “devoid of any actual creativity.”

Coca-Cola is facing backlash online over an artificial intelligence-made Christmas promotional video that users are calling “soulless” and “devoid of any actual creativity.” 

The AI-made video features everything from big red Coca-Cola trucks driving through snowy streets to people smiling in scarves and knitted hats holding Coca-Cola bottles. The video was meant to pay homage to the company’s 1995 commercial “Holidays Are Coming,” which featured similar imagery, but with human actors and real trucks.

Forbes reported that the video was created by three AI studios — Secret Level, Silverside AI and Wild Card — using four different generative AI models. Silverside AI’s AI Developer Chris Barber wrote in a reply on X that each of the AI studios created a different version of the advertisement, with the viral one not belonging to Silverside AI. 

The video drew criticism from many creatives who argued that it was distasteful for the company to use AI technology to create the video instead of the work of artists. Alex Hirsch, the creator of the Disney series “Gravity Falls,” commented on an X post that showed the new commercial, which has amassed over 56 million views, “FUN FACT: @CocaCola is ‘red’ because it’s made from the blood of out-of-work artists! #HolidayFactz.”

Many artists and creative professionals have pushed back against the use of AI in creative works, arguing that the technology may be used to replace human workers and that many AI models were trained on artists’ work without proper compensation or credit.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/coca-cola-causes-controversy-ai-made-ad-rcna180665

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