If you believe what you see on TV, then the mysterious technological force known as A.I. is nothing without the help of some human hands.
In a 60-second ad slated to run Sunday in NBC’s telecast of Super Bowl LX, Open AI shows a series of pictures of people using their hands to read, sketch, design, ask questions and even guide a pair of robotic arms. The last few seconds are used to flash the words “You Can Just Build Things” on screens, following by a prompt to consider Codex, an app that can develop software depending on the instructions of the users who harness it.
“We shot the ads with real people, on film, who use our tools,” says Kate Rouch, chief marketing officer of Open AI, during a recent interview, “The core message is that people are actually the hero. This is a technology that extends what’s possible for people.” That message will sound again quicky with local ads running during the Super Bowl telecast in New York. Los Angeles, San Francisco Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Las Vegas, and Dallas.
Rouch knows something about capturing attention at the Super Bowl. In a previous role, she worked as chief marketing officer for Coinbase, the cryptocurrency platform that surprised Super Bowl viewers in 2022 with a bare-bones spot that featured nothing but a floating, color-changing QR code. Response was instantaneous and overwhelming, according to company comments made at the time.
In 2026, however, OpenAI is just one of several A.I. firms taking to the Super Bowl to get messages out about a technology that spurs more questions than answers. This emerging science solves problems and moves quickly but, because it does, stokes fears about whether it may wipe out a significant chunk of human activity and process as it continues to evolve. In addition to Open AI, Anthropic, Google, Amazon, Meta and two less-familiar firms, Genspark and Base44, will all promote A.I. chatbots or technologies in the Big Game.
The attraction of the Super Bowl, a bastion of traditional media, to even the most revolutionary of technologies isn’t hard to discern. All these companies need to get the word out about their creations to the broader populace, and very few media properties lure the broad crowd that tunes into the gridiron classic. Consumer research from Anthropic, the company behind the A.I. interface known as Claude, shows the average consumer has “not locked in any choice” when it comes to a favorite A.I. provider, says Andrew Stirk, the company’s head of brand marketing. Consumers are “enjoying exploring what this technology can do,” he says, but “the openness to switch is equally high.”
Anthropic will use its Super Bowl berth to take a poke at A.I. companies that want to make ads part of the experience. “Ads are coming to A.I.,” reads a message at the tail end of the spot. “But not to Claude.” And it will run a 60-second spot in NBC’s pre-game coverage ahead of airing a 30-second ad in the Super Bowl itself. Savvy viewers will understand the spot takes a poke at Open AI’s recent decision to open an ad-supported service tier.
Amazon’s new ad will nod to some of the fears around A.I.’s increasing presence in everyday human affairs. Actor Chris Hemsworth envisions the company’s new Alexa+ A.I. assistant plotting his demise with an automatic garage door or an easily rigged fireplace (all the while, INXS’s “The Devil Inside” plays in the background).
Genspark has tapped actor Matthew Broderick. Google shows a woman and her young child using the company’s Gemini A.I. interface to imagine what inside of their new home might look like, while Randy Newman’s “Feels Like Home” underscores the action.
Open AI is trying to pivot away from “negative versions of the future,” says Rouch. “We fundamentally believe that people with these tools, are actually going to be able to do and already are doing at scale incredible things. And that’s a conversation that we want to have.”
She hopes the company’s commercial stands apart from the rest of the pack and offers Open AI a point of distinction. Some ads from A.I. players sounds as if they are “talking down to people” or playing up very simple functions, like remembering a child’s birthday or setting a timer. Rouch sees more opportunities in focusing on the ways people can use this new technology to augment their lives, taking on tasks like navigating paperwork around a complex health situation or learning a new language.
“A.I. is at a turning point,” she says, “where it’s turning from something that can ask and answer questions and becoming something that can act and do things in the world for you.”