Meta took to its official Instagram account on Thursday morning with a promotional video pushing back against concerns that artificial intelligence could isolate humanity. The ad declares that AI will neither "make us less connected" nor "leave us behind." Its musical backdrop, however, raises eyebrows: the 1972 David Bowie composition "Five Years," a track widely understood to be about the end of the world.
The narrator in the advertisement delivers a defiant message: "Call us optimists, call us dreamers, call us whatever the hell you want—but we're betting on people, and we like those odds." The visuals lean heavily on warmth and human connection, featuring a toddler interacting with a butterfly, parents sharing a laugh with their baby, and basketball player Jalen Brunson celebrating at a Knicks Championship Parade. The ad also makes a point of showcasing innocuous uses for Meta's smart glasses, steering clear of the controversies that have dogged the product.
The Song Behind the Ad
While Meta's ad mines "Five Years" for its optimistic undertones, the song's broader narrative is far darker. According to BowieBible.com, the track describes a dystopian nightmare in which Earth has only five years left before destruction, with panic, violence, and desperate attempts at redemption unfolding throughout.
Meta spokesperson Francis Brennan, when asked for comment, pointed to a 1972 quote attributed to Bowie in which the artist expressed a desire to flip people's fear of the future into optimism. The quote, originally published in NME Magazine and sourced through BowieBible.com, reads in part: "People are so incredibly serious and scared of the future that I would wish to turn the feeling the other way, into a wave of optimism."
However, the same source also carries a 2018 interview with drummer Mick Woodmansey, who recalled discussing the song's apocalyptic theme with Bowie. Woodmansey described the subject matter as "pretty depressing" and remembered the singer being moved to tears while recording the vocal.
Critics Question the Choice
Jeremy D. Larson, deputy director of the Condé Nast publication Pitchfork, notes that stripping songs of their original context for commercial purposes is nothing new. He cites a Carnival Cruise advertisement that repurposed an Iggy Pop song about heroin addiction as a parallel example. He also notes that Warner Chappell Music, which owns Bowie's catalog, holds the discretion over where his music appears.
Still, Larson finds Meta's particular selection jarring. He told WIRED that using a song where human connection is framed against the backdrop of the apocalypse comes across as "either really ignorant or really insidious," while acknowledging it could also be interpreted as a stroke of unconventional genius. He also expressed discomfort with Bowie's art being tied to artificial intelligence, calling it "especially and specifically nonconsensual."