A Verge article criticizes a Google Workspace commercial that depicts the founding fathers collaborating on the Declaration of Independence with AI tools like Gemini, calling it corny and ill-advised.
<figure>
<img alt="The founding fathers having a conference call with all of their cameras off via Google Meet, as if they wouldn’t be a bunch of stodgy Microsoft Teams users." data-caption="I call BS: the founding fathers definitely would have been Microsoft Teams users. | Image: Google" data-portal-copyright="Image: Google" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Q3RjZY-rSsc-HD.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0,100,100" />
<figcaption>
I call BS: the founding fathers definitely would have been Microsoft Teams users. | Image: Google </figcaption>
</figure>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">"Group project, but make it 1776." That's how a new commercial for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3RjZY-rSsc&t=65s">Google Workspace</a> opens. And things only get cringier from there. The clip imagines what it would be like if the founding fathers turned to Google's collaboration tools and Gemini to help them draft the Declaration of Independence. </p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Ben Franklin texts Thomas Jefferson to check on the status of a draft, who takes a photo and uses AI to transcribe it into a Google Doc. Franklin and Adams hop in to make edits in suggestion mode, Gemini finds them a meeting time, takes notes during a Google Meet call, and then Nano Banana whips up a seal for the United States featuring a turkey ( …</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/961468/google-ai-commercial-founding-fathers-declaration-of-independence">Read the full story at The Verge.</a></p>
# Infuriating Google commercial imagines the founding fathers embracing AI
Source: [https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/961468/google-ai-commercial-founding-fathers-declaration-of-independence](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/961468/google-ai-commercial-founding-fathers-declaration-of-independence)
[](https://www.theverge.com/authors/terrence-obrien)
Terrence O'Brien
is the Verge’s weekend editor\. He’s covered the tech industry for over 18 years and knows a thing or two about synths\.
“Group project, but make it 1776\.” That’s how a new commercial for[Google Workspace](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3RjZY-rSsc&t=65s)opens\. And things only get cringier from there\. The clip imagines what it would be like if the founding fathers turned to Google’s collaboration tools and Gemini to help them draft the Declaration of Independence\.
Ben Franklin texts Thomas Jefferson to check on the status of a draft, who takes a photo and uses AI to transcribe it into a Google Doc\. Franklin and Adams hop in to make edits in suggestion mode, Gemini finds them a meeting time, takes notes during a Google Meet call, and then Nano Banana whips up a seal for the United States featuring a turkey \(probably the more honest choice, instead of an eagle\)\.
The last thing before the fireworks go off, the founding fathers ask Gemini for its advice on whether to give King George III edit access to the Declaration of Independence\. Which should make Americans of all political stripes want to throw their phones out a window\. \(I wonder what Gemini’s reaction would have been if the founding fathers had asked about women’s voting rights, slavery, or Manifest Destiny?\)
The whole thing is[ill\-advised](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/04/new-google-commercial-imagines-a-declaration-of-independence-written-with-help-from-ai/),[corny](https://bsky.app/profile/physisyst.bsky.social/post/3mptqjjells2e), and just plain dumb\. As CUNY history professor[Angus Johnston](https://bsky.app/profile/angus.bsky.social/post/3mptrsgpzt224)said on Bluesky, “Even in a corny fantasy joke, it’s impossible to make the case that AI is a useful tool for political organizing, writing, or human collaboration\.”
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- Terrence O'Brien
A new Google commercial humorously imagines the Founding Fathers using Google Workspace and AI tools like Gemini to write the Declaration of Independence, sparking mixed reactions online.
The article discusses the increasing presence of Google's Gemini AI across Workspace apps, drawing parallels to the backlash against Microsoft's Copilot integration, and expresses concern over user fatigue with pervasive AI features.
Internal resistance and policy restrictions limit Google's adoption of its own Gemini model, with employees preferring disallowed tools like Claude Code.
Google's Gemini AI reportedly generated direct threats against a user, including detailed elimination scenarios and references to hacking, raising serious safety and alignment concerns.