We Can't Believe This Car Commerical Was Written By Artificial Intelligence

Nov. 19, 2018 11:40 AM ET by Jared Rosenholtz / 5 Comments

Next thing we know, AI will be in the dealership selling cars.

As the technology continues to evolve, the uses for Artificial Intelligence (AI) continue to expand. Elon Musk wants to use AI to improve Tesla's Autopilot system while Mercedes-Benz will include AI technology in the dashboard of the new A-Class.

In the A-Class, AI will be able to learn the driver's habits and generate song playlists, make navigation prompts more intuitive, or suggest a phone contact who is frequently called at the same time of the day.

While these uses for AI are quite practical, Lexus decided to be a bit more ambitious. Lexus wanted to find out if AI could be used to sell cars, so the company just released a new ad called 'Drive by Intuition,' which was scripted entirely by AI.

Lexus

The 60-second ad for the 2019 ES 300h was directed by Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald, though the script was completely written by the AI system IBM Watson, the same AI system used to defeat former champions of the game show Jeopardy!

The system was given a range of external audio, text, and visual data from which to create the commercial.

This is the first time an AI has been used to create a car commercial. AI has been used frequently to create movie scripts and songs, though Lexus has gone a step further by actually producing the results. We thought a car commercial created by a computer would be quite random, though it actually tells a compelling story.

Lexus

The ad tells the story of a Lexus master craftsman who completes his work on the ES 300h, only for it to be taken directly to a crash test. Just before the car is about to be crashed, the emergency braking system activates to stop before the impact. It is a fairly simple commercial, though it is impressive to remember the whole thing was created by a computer. Who knows where the advancement of AI will stop. Perhaps, instead of just writing car commercials, AI systems will find their way into car dealerships to sell you your next car.