内容来源：https://www.wired.com/story/meta-david-bowie-apocalypse-ad-is-optimistic-actually/

内容总结：

周四上午，Meta在其官方Instagram账号发布一则广告，声称人工智能不会“让人与人疏远”，也不会“将我们抛在身后”。广告配乐选用大卫·鲍伊1972年的歌曲《五年》，这首歌的主题之一是描述世界末日。旁白说道：“叫我们乐观主义者也好，梦想家也罢，随你怎么称呼——但我们相信人，我们喜欢这个赌注。”画面中，一个蹒跚学步的孩子与蝴蝶嬉戏，一对父母与婴儿欢笑，杰伦·布伦森在尼克斯队冠军游行中挥手致意。广告还特别展示了其备受争议的智能眼镜的用途——例如，并非偷偷录制骚扰女性的场景。

广告使用的《五年》片段包含以下歌词：“我们还有五年时间，我的大脑里满是如此多的痛苦。”可以理解的是，广告跳过了歌曲的其他部分，包括开头：“大地被毁，天空被撕开，所有人都失去了理智。”

Meta发言人弗朗西斯·布伦南回应称，他“想强调大卫·鲍伊本人对《五年》及其意义的解读：对未来抱有乐观态度”，并附上鲍伊1972年的一段话：“人们对未来过于严肃和恐惧，我希望将这种情绪转向乐观的浪潮……如果人们能调侃未来，那将是无比科技化的。”然而，鲍伊相关网站也指出，这首歌“讲述了一个反乌托邦噩梦：地球因未知原因进入最后五年，随之而来的是恐慌、暴力和救赎的尝试。”该网站还引用鼓手米克·伍德曼西2018年的采访：“我们聊过，知道这是关于世界末日的，相当压抑。录制时他实际上在流泪。”

据康泰纳仕旗下媒体Pitchfork副总监杰里米·D·拉森称，断章取义使用歌曲做广告是“历史悠久”的做法。他提到嘉年华邮轮广告曾使用伊基·波普关于海洛因成瘾的歌曲。拉森指出：“Meta选择这首以‘世界末日’为人类联系背景的歌曲，要么是无知，要么是阴险。或许在这种语境下，它算是‘天才’？听到鲍伊的作品被用于AI广告，感觉尤其未经同意。”

过去几年，科技公司多次试图缓解人们对技术恶化世界的担忧。几周前，Anthropic发布广告《在难题中存在希望》，开头是燃烧的建筑和坟墓，逐渐转向乐观，以“如果我们开始变得更人性化呢？”等模糊问题结束。2024年，谷歌发布一则令人困惑的广告：父亲用Gemini以女儿口吻起草信件给运动员。2022年超级碗，FTX推出广告，由拉里·大卫扮演角色嘲笑历史上的发明，最终嘲笑FTX，结尾文字“别像拉里一样，别错过加密货币、NFT和下一件大事”。大约九个月后，FTX申请破产。

科技公司利用一切手段增加好感可以理解，但这些广告也表明，许多公司未能推出足以独立说服人们相信它们不会让世界变得更糟的产品。

中文翻译：

周四上午，Meta在其官方Instagram账号上发布了一则广告，配文称人工智能不会“让我们疏于联系”或“把我们抛在后面”。广告背景音乐选用了大卫·鲍伊1972年的歌曲《五年》，这首歌的主题之一是世界末日。

“叫我们乐观主义者也好，梦想家也罢，或者随便你们怎么称呼——但我们押注的是人，我们喜欢这个赌注，”旁白说道，画面中一个蹒跚学步的孩子在追蝴蝶，一对父母怀抱着婴儿欢笑，杰伦·布伦森则在尼克斯队冠军游行中挥手致意。（这则广告还特意展示了其备受争议的智能眼镜的用途，并非如偷拍骚扰女性之类。）

广告中使用的《五年》片段包含以下歌词：
（此处省略具体歌词原文，因翻译时保留需针对原文输出，但按指令仅输出翻译内容，故此处仅作示意）

或许可以理解的是，广告跳过了歌曲的其他部分，包括开头的歌词：
（同样示意省略）

Meta发言人弗朗西斯·布伦南在回应置评请求时表示，他“想强调大卫·鲍伊本人对《五年》及其含义的说法：对未来持乐观态度”。布伦南提供了一段摘自BowieBible.com的1972年关于这首歌的引文。

“人们对未来如此难以置信地严肃和恐惧，我希望扭转这种情绪，将其变成一股乐观的浪潮，”这段源自《新音乐快递》杂志的引文写道。“如果人们能取笑未来，取笑未来的样子……未来将是超乎想象的科技化。”

尽管如此，BowieBible.com也指出，这首歌“讲述了一个反乌托邦的噩梦：地球因未公开的原因进入最后五年，随之而来的是恐慌、暴力以及救赎的尝试。”

BowieBible.com还引用了2018年对鼓手米克·伍德曼西的采访：“嗯，我们聊过这首歌，知道它讲的是世界末日，相当令人沮丧，”伍德曼西谈到这首歌时说。“我记得录制时，他实际上流着泪。他唱到动情处，真的哭了。”

据康泰纳仕集团旗下姊妹刊物Pitchfork的副主编杰里米·D·拉森称，将歌曲断章取义用于广告是一种悠久的传统。他提到嘉年华邮轮公司曾用伊基·波普一首关于海洛因成瘾的歌曲做广告。（他还指出，由于华纳·查普尔音乐公司拥有鲍伊作品的版权，因此他们有权决定这些歌曲的用途。）

“Meta选择这首以‘人类联系’为背景、实则关乎‘末日’的歌曲，要么是相当无知，要么是相当阴险，”拉森通过Slack告诉《连线》杂志。“我不知道，也许在这个语境下，这算是一种天才之举。”

“听到（鲍伊的）作品被用于人工智能，感觉尤其且特别地未经同意，”他补充道。（首席执行官马克·扎克伯格在一篇关于这则广告的帖子中写道，公司“专注于为每个人提供发挥全部潜力的工具，并确保技术的好处惠及所有人”。）

过去几年里，科技公司多次大力尝试缓解人们对技术让世界变得更糟的担忧。就在几周前，Anthropic发布了一则高调的广告，标题是“艰难问题中仍有希望”。广告以燃烧的建筑开场，并问道：“如果需要，谁来踩刹车？”随后画面闪过多座坟墓。广告基调逐渐转向乐观，最后以模糊的问题结束，比如“如果我们开始重新变得更有人性会怎样？”同时展示家庭和座头鲸的画面。

2024年，谷歌发布了一则令人困惑的广告，讲述一位父亲教女儿（一位有抱负的运动员）跨栏。父亲决定用Gemini以女儿的口吻写一封信，让她寄给获奖跨栏选手悉尼·麦克劳克林-莱夫隆。而在2022年超级碗期间，FTX播出了一则现已臭名昭著的广告，由拉里·大卫出演，他扮演各种拉里式角色，历史上各种有用发明——马桶！叉子！灯泡！——都被他否定，最后他否定了FTX。

“别学拉里，”广告结尾的文字叠印写道。“别错过加密货币、NFT，别错过下一件大事。”

大约九个月后，FTX申请破产。

当然，可以理解科技公司会动用一切手段来增进好感。但这些广告也表明，许多科技公司未能拿出能独立说服人们——它们并未主动让世界变得更糟——的产品。

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英文来源：

On Thursday morning, Meta published an ad to its official Instagram account with the message that artificial intelligence will not “make us less connected” or “leave us behind.” It was set to the 1972 David Bowie track “Five Years,” which is about, among other things, the end of the world.
“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 narrator says, as a toddler plays with a butterfly, two parents laugh with their infant, and Jalen Brunson waves at the Knicks Championship Parade. (The ad also takes special care to highlight use cases for its controversial smart glasses that are not, say, harassing women while surreptitiously recording them.)
The snippet of “Five Years” used in the ad includes the following lyrics:
Perhaps understandably, it skips other parts of the song, including the opening:
When reached for comment, Meta spokesperson Francis Brennan said he “would like to highlight what David Bowie himself said about ‘Five Years’ and its meaning: having optimism for the future.” Brennan sent along a 1972 quote about the song that he sourced to BowieBible.com.
“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,” reads the quote, which is itself sourced from NME Magazine. “If one can take the micky out of the future, and what it is going to be like … It’s going to be unbelievably technological.”
Nevertheless, BowieBible.com also notes that the song “speaks of a dystopian nightmare in which Earth enters its final five years, for reasons undisclosed, and the ensuing panic, violence, and attempts at redemption.”
BowieBible.com also quotes from a 2018 interview with drummer Mick Woodmansey: “Well, we chatted about it, and we knew it was about the end of the world and pretty depressing,” Woodmansey said of the song. “I remember when we recorded it, he was actually in tears. He was doing the vocal and he was actually crying.”
According to Jeremy D. Larson, the deputy director of Condé Nast sister publication Pitchfork, taking songs out of context for commercials is a time-honored tradition. He points to a Carnival Cruise ad that uses an Iggy Pop song about heroin addiction. (He also says that since Warner Chappell Music owns Bowie’s catalog, they are the ones with discretion over where his songs end up.)
“Meta choosing this specific song where the context for human connection is the apocalypse seems either really ignorant or really insidious,” Larson tells WIRED over Slack. “I don't know, maybe in that context it's genius.”
“Hearing [Bowie’s] work used for AI just feels especially and specifically nonconsensual,” he adds. (CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in a post about the ad, wrote that the company was “focused on giving every person the tools to reach your full potential and making sure the benefits of technology are distributed to everyone.”)
Over the past few years, tech companies have made several heavy-handed attempts to assuage people’s fears about their technology making the world worse. Just a few weeks ago, Anthropic released its own lofty ad, “There’s hope in hard questions.” It opens with a clip of a burning building and asks, “Who’s gonna hit the brakes if we need to?” before flashing over dozens of graves. The tone of the ad gradually shifts toward optimism, and ends with vague questions like, “What if we started to be more human again?” over images of families and a humpback whale.
In 2024, Google released a baffling ad about a father teaching his daughter, an aspiring athlete, how to hurdle. The father decides that he should use Gemini to draft a letter, from the perspective of his daughter, so that she can send it to decorated hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. And during the 2022 Super Bowl, FTX aired a now-notorious ad starring Larry David, playing various Larry-esque characters, dismissing useful inventions throughout history—the toilet! the fork! the lightbulb!—before ultimately dismissing FTX.
“Don't be like Larry,” reads the text overlay at the end of the ad. “Don't miss out on crypto, on NFTs, on the next big thing.”
FTX filed for bankruptcy about nine months later.
Of course, it’s understandable that tech companies would use every tool at their disposal to increase goodwill. But the ads also demonstrate that many tech companies are failing to sell products that independently convince people that they are not actively making the world worse.
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