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DirecTV Will Soon Bring AI Ads To Your Screensaver (theverge.com) 32

Posted by msmash from the your-scientists-were-so-preoccupied dept.
DirecTV wants to use AI to put you, your family, and your pets inside a custom TV screensaver. From a report: If that's not uncanny enough, you'll find items you can shop for within that AI environment, whether it's a piece of clothing similar to the one your AI likeness is wearing or a piece of furniture that pops up alongside it.

The satellite TV giant is partnering with the AI company Glance to roll out this experience to DirecTV Gemini devices starting next year. "We are making television a lean-in experience versus lean back," Rajat Wanchoo, the group vice president of commercial partnerships at Glance, tells The Verge. "We want to give users a chance to use the advancements that have happened in generative AI to create a ChatGPT moment for themselves, but on TV." Glance is owned by InMobi, the same company that injected ecommerce bloatware into Motorola's budget phones.
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DirecTV Will Soon Bring AI Ads To Your Screensaver More

DirecTV Will Soon Bring AI Ads To Your Screensaver

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  • The Great Enshittification... history will call (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MikeDataLink ( 536925 ) on Tuesday October 14, 2025 @04:46PM (#65725064) Homepage Journal

    this period in time.

  • Which is why... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I only watch and consume content from a device with 5+ adblockers on it that totally PREVENTS any and ALL advertising from making it through. If you wouldn't walk into my home unannounced and stand at the end of my dinner table and spout your BS, don't expect to sneak in ANY OTHER WAY. ;-) Fuck Advertising. ALL Forms.

    • Re:Which is why... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by MikeDataLink ( 536925 ) on Tuesday October 14, 2025 @05:07PM (#65725104) Homepage Journal

      Fuck Advertising. ALL Forms.

      There are useful forms of advertising. I want to know if a new mom & pop restaurant opens down the street from me. A sign on the side of the road for example letting me know they just opened.

      I also think it is perfectly fine to offer free content in exchange for a few seconds of my time to watch an advertisement. This is simply a different payment method. Time rather than a currency exchange.

      The issue with advertising is that current marketers seem to have no limits or boundaries in which they are not willing to cross. This is just another example of where pure capitalism is failing us. We can't tell monopolies like Facebook or Google "no" or otherwise limit their reach. Government regulation is a must.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sebby ( 238625 )

        The issue with advertising is that current marketers seem to have no limits or boundaries in which they are not willing to cross

        Exactly this - just like the early web, marketers arrogantly think that because they can (have the ability to) shove ads in our faces, that they must shove ads in our faces or that the ability somehow "gives them permission" to do so, forcefully.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jezwel ( 2451108 )

        There are useful forms of advertising. I want to know if a new mom & pop restaurant opens down the street from me. A sign on the side of the road for example letting me know they just opened.

        I also think it is perfectly fine to offer free content in exchange for a few seconds of my time to watch an advertisement. This is simply a different payment method. Time rather than a currency exchange.

        The issue with advertising is that current marketers seem to have no limits or boundaries in which they are not willing to cross. This is just another example of where pure capitalism is failing us. We can't tell monopolies like Facebook or Google "no" or otherwise limit their reach. Government regulation is a must.

        The problem is that our reactions to ads are not used to tune the ad display algorithm - I'd be a lot happier if Youtube determined that me skipping every Grammerly ad as soon as the 'Skip' button shows up indicates I don't want the product, and perhaps they should show a different ad - or even none, if there's nothing of note for that timeslot.

        On the flipside, if I'm interested in a product but don't have enough info about it, I should be able to indicate that and have applicable and relevant ads run in th

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Gleenie ( 412916 )

      If you wouldn't walk into my home unannounced and stand at the end of my dinner table and spout your BS, don't expect to sneak in ANY OTHER WAY. ;-)

      Advertisers would *absolutely* do that if it wasn't illegal.

  • “We want to give users a chance to use the advancements that have happened in generative AI to create a ChatGPT moment for themselves, but on TV.”

    Reminds me of the Mr. Robot episode where Eliot ended up in a 1980s style sitcom.

    • “We want to give users a chance to use the advancements that have happened in generative AI to create a ChatGPT moment for themselves, but on TV.” Reminds me of the Mr. Robot episode where Eliot ended up in a 1980s style sitcom.

      Just saw that one for the first time last night. Alf even showed up, though I was disappointed he didn't eat any cats.

  • I really enjoy reading how these low effort stooges try to sell their value add(for them). Instead of leaning in I hope some toss it out.
    • That's the worst part - acting like this is a benefit for consumers rather than the advertisers to whom consumer time is being sold. When marketing martketing, the amount of BS increases exponentially.

  • "We want to give users a chance to use the advancements that have happened in generative AI to create a ChatGPT moment for themselves, but on TV."

    Yeah, that's how people will get a chance to utilize the advancements of generative AI. Through advertising. This is the advancement of the human race, top-down, people. Take our most advanced advertising technology and *EXPERIENCE* it! Feel the power of our advancements! FEEL IT!

  • Great use of resources (Score:3)

    by silvergig ( 7651900 ) on Tuesday October 14, 2025 @05:06PM (#65725102)
    I have been reading about how our power grid, freshwater, and basically...money, is all being pissed away so we can have more of this shit-slop thrown at us.

    When will the AI bubble finally pop so this goes away?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DewDude ( 537374 )

      I mean someone tells me every time I ask it a question I'm boiling a small lake.

      I tell them to shut the fuck up and do some actual math rather than listen to total idiots online that just five minutes prior were talking about how cystals cure cancer. Yeah...the person who believes a shiny rock will save them is exactly the person I think is an authority on scientific matters such as power consumption.

      I routinely pull a couple of kW just to talk to people on the other side of the planet with radio waves. No

  • AI is Advertisement Intensification (Score:3)

    by ebunga ( 95613 ) on Tuesday October 14, 2025 @05:14PM (#65725118)

    As I've been saying...

    • idk, I reckon you could have some fun with this, where does DirecTV get it's data from? Does the device have like an inbuilt camera or something? Or would it pull it from social media, or whatever the user decides to share? - either way I think uncle Aldof and cousin Bin laden are coming to a AI DirecTV ad near you!

      Edit: I don't know what DirecTV is, as it's not available in my country. (Looks like our equivalent of Austar)

  • "We want to give users a chance to use the advancements that have happened in generative AI to create a ChatGPT moment for themselves, but on TV."

    The genesis of many, many bad ideas: ", but on ..."

    (Pretty sure the first part of that quote is dumb too.)

  • So I looked at cable tv yesterday.

    I had access to a remote control and a tv with "all the channels" so, for the first time in several years, I started clicking around through the channel guide and selecting stuff more-or-less at random.

    I selected a dozen or so different channels and there was only ONE that wasn't playing a commercial when I selected it. One. Single. Channel.

    I even waited for a minute or two on some of the channels to see what the programming looked like, and I got to watch more ads and a f

  • ...pop this AI bubble already?

  • So they want an AI version of you, to sell crap to you. They no longer have to hire ad-execs, script-writers and actors: They will use your identity and likeness for free. That should motivate everyone to join SAG, at the very least. More likely: People demanding money from a corporation using their likeness. Cory Doctorow is correct: "Enshittification" is more than reducing quality, it really is "too big to care"; about the law, about the customer and about their own future.

  • I don't have DirecTV, and for the most part... I don't watch TV.

    Problem solved!

    T

  • Did anyone else see this as "DirecTV Will Soon Bring Aids to Your Screensaver"?

  • Directv Screen saver AI ...

  • "DirecTV Will Soon Bring AI Ads To Your Screensaver"

    No they fucking won't, because I don't use DirecTV, and if I did I'd drop them like a bad habit.

    But since I don't use DirecTV, this move only ensures that I'll never use DirecTV.

    So, yeah congrats to DirecTV for alienating at least some fraction of their untapped audience. Truly forward thinking in reverse.

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