Samsung is flooding its social media with AI-generated advertising, including promotional videos for its upcoming Galaxy S26 series. The move marks a controversial shift in how major tech brands market flagship products, with several recent posts on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok either fully created or heavily edited using generative AI tools. The practice raises questions about authenticity in product marketing - especially when ads claim to showcase real device capabilities.
Samsung just crossed a new line in tech marketing. The company is plastering AI-generated videos across its social channels to promote the upcoming Galaxy S26 series, raising uncomfortable questions about what's real anymore in product advertising.
The most striking example is a video titled "Brighten your after hours" that supposedly demonstrates the Galaxy S26's low-light video capabilities. It shows two people skateboarding at night in crisp, well-lit footage. The catch? Fine print at the end reveals the entire thing was "generated with" AI tools. So much for showcasing actual camera performance.
This isn't an isolated experiment. Multiple videos posted to Samsung's YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok accounts over recent weeks were either fully created or significantly edited using generative AI, according to reporting by The Verge. The company is disclosing the AI usage, but only barely - and the disclosures raise more questions than they answer.
When you're marketing a phone's camera capabilities using footage that never actually came from that camera, you're entering murky territory. Traditional product demos rely on showing what the device can actually do. AI-generated alternatives might look impressive, but they're essentially concept art passed off as product validation.
Samsung has been on an AI integration spree lately, embedding the technology into smartphones, home appliances, and virtually every device category it touches. But using AI to create ads that purport to show real product features takes that strategy in a different direction entirely. It's one thing to use AI for creative effects or artistic interpretation. It's another to suggest synthetic footage represents authentic device performance.
