Samsung's AI-generated ads for Galaxy S26 camera features spark widespread backlash

Samsung is slopping AI ads all over its social channels

After cramming AI into every inch of its smartphones, appliances, and other devices, Samsung is now increasingly slapping it across social media. Several videos posted to the company's YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok accounts in recent weeks were made or edited using generative AI tools, including its latest teaser for the upcoming Galaxy S26 series. The "Brighten your after hours" video features two people skateboarding at night, and supposedly shows off the low-light video capabilities of the upcoming Galaxy S26 devices. Fine print appears at the bottom of the screen towards the end of the video, flagging that it was "generated with the assistance of AI tools," but there are obvious signs even without the disclosure. The vegetable-laden shopping bags look artificial and unnaturally weighted, for example, and cobblestones in the road appear to shift around. This video, and several others that use AI to promote camera features, all carry the tag line "Can your phone do that?" but don't specify if Samsung is using its own phones or AI models to generate the content. It wouldn't be the first time that the company has misrepresented its smartphone camera capabilities in marketing materials. Samsung has also been posting low-quality cartoons (which look suspiciously Disney-styled) to promote AI home appliances, cat edits, and snowmen who are ironically struggling to determine what's real -- all made or manipulated using AI. Most include a similar AI disclosure in the clips, but YouTube and Instagram notably haven't added their own AI labels on the "Brighten your after hours" video, despite Google, Meta, and Samsung all having adopted C2PA -- the authenticity standard used by most AI labeling systems. We have reached out to Samsung, Meta, and Google for comment.

Samsung's shameless AI ads aren't going down well

We've seen plenty of examples of dodgy AI advertising from big brands including McDonald's and Coca-Cola in recent months. But if there's one industry we wouldn't expect to see churning out egregiously obvious slop, it's tech. So it's a little surprising to see Samsung slopping all over its social media feeds with a bunch of badly rendered ads designed, ironically, to highlight upcoming Galaxy S26 series's AI capabilities. Take, for example, the above ad titled 'Brighten your after hours'. The ad is ostensibly advertising the ability to brighten dark videos. But the crappy AI distracts from the actual message. Why are the skateboarding men's suits so shiny? Why does the road suddenly transform from paved to cobbled? The ad ends with the line, 'Can your phone do that?' Which is a bit rich - judging by the need for AI, presumably Samsung's can't either. Needless to say, the comments aren't kind. "Samsung really?! AI slop to show your new Ultra camera night time performance?," one viewer complains, while another adds, "I was actually interested in moving from an iPhone until I saw this. This is garbage and I want nothing to do with it." Another pithily concludes, 'This is the best iPhone ad'. None of this is a good look for Samsung. Why advertise camera features using footage that didn't come from the camera? Why hide the AI disclaimer in such tiny small-print at the bottom when the whole thing is so blatantly artificially generated? Indeed, there seems to be a concerning trend here - if big brands like Samsung and Coca-Cola aren't afraid to make their AI ads look so unapologetically shite, what do the next few years of advertising look like? The future's not bright. The future's sloppy.