Google Workspace ad casts founders using Gemini on Declaration
A new Google commercial imagines Franklin, Jefferson and Adams drafting the Declaration of Independence with Workspace tools and Gemini.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
2 min read
Google is using the Declaration of Independence to sell Workspace and Gemini in a new commercial. The spot matters because it places AI inside one of the best-known political writing projects in U.S. history, drawing criticism from tech and history commentators.
The commercial, posted on YouTube for Google Workspace, opens with the line, “Group project, but make it 1776,” according to The Verge. It imagines Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams using Google collaboration software while preparing the Declaration of Independence.
In the ad, Franklin messages Jefferson to ask about the draft, The Verge reported. Jefferson then photographs handwritten material and uses AI to turn it into text inside a Google Doc.
The commercial continues by showing Franklin and Adams joining the document and making changes through suggestion mode, according to The Verge. Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, is shown arranging a meeting time and taking notes during a Google Meet call.
The ad also includes Nano Banana, which The Verge described as creating a proposed seal for the United States with a turkey rather than an eagle. The Verge’s Terrence O’Brien wrote that the turkey may have been “the more honest choice.”
AI as a founding-era collaborator
The final gag has the founders asking Gemini whether King George III should receive edit access to the Declaration, The Verge reported. O’Brien criticized that premise and wrote that the spot should frustrate Americans across the political spectrum.
O’Brien also questioned how Gemini might have responded if the founders had asked about other historical questions, including women’s suffrage, slavery or Manifest Destiny. Those points were raised as commentary by The Verge, not as claims made in the commercial.
The ad drew public criticism from CUNY history professor Angus Johnston, who posted on Bluesky that even as a comic fantasy, it fails to show AI as useful for political organizing, writing or human collaboration. Johnston’s criticism was cited by The Verge.
The commercial arrives as Google continues to promote Gemini across its productivity products. In this ad, the company presents AI as a helper for drafting, editing, scheduling, note-taking and design work, using a fictionalized version of the founding fathers to demonstrate those features.
The reaction highlighted a recurring tension around AI marketing: companies often frame the tools as friction-reducing assistants, while critics object when ads insert them into creative, political or historical work. In this case, according to The Verge, the target was not just an AI pitch but the use of the Declaration of Independence as the setting for it.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.