Breakingviews: Super Bowl mania – media’s defensive line versus AI

Robots are no match for American football. The chorus of revolutionary promises about artificial intelligence might lead one to believe that no human activity is safe in an era of silicon smarts. But when it comes to live events – on traditional television, no less — AI can’t beat flesh-and-blood fervor.

For the uninitiated, the National Football League broadcast of its championship game, dubbed the Super Bowl, is tantamount to a religious experience for many in the United States. On Sunday, millions gathered to watch the Philadelphia Eagles trounce the Kansas City Chiefs. The draw of the most-watched event of the year attracts celebrity attendees and performers, with 2025’s roster including President Donald Trump, Taylor Swift, Serena Williams and Kendrick Lamar.

In a world of disjointed social media feeds and social fragmentation, it’s a rare thing to get this many people watching the same thing at the same time. The unpredictable drama of a live human contest, captivating in the moment but quickly ebbing afterwards, seems the only way to reliably draw them in. Artificial content has no way to match these moments, even as it poses a radical challenge to other entertainment industries like Hollywood’s movie studios.

Just look at the Super Bowl’s viewership. Over 100 million people are expected to have tuned in this year. Despite all the new distractions on offer, that’s remained relatively stable, with audience numbers rising 8% between 2015 and 2024. This durability has made advertising during the big game increasingly valuable: where else to get such a huge cross-section of the country when everyone is paying attention? The price of a commercial rose roughly 56% over the same time span. Last year, Paramount Global’s CBS charged $7 million for a spot. This year, Fox upped the ante and got roughly $8 million.

In a sign of just how essential sports remain, OpenAI debuted an advertisement for chatbot ChatGPT. It was even created by traditional advertising agencies, not machines. In a final, appropriate twist, it doesn’t seem to have won viewers over. According to USA Today’s poll tracking the popularity of the Super Bowl’s ads, Anheuser-Busch Inbev’s Budweiser commercial took the top spot. At number 53, OpenAI fell behind Lay’s potato chips, Hellmann’s mayonnaise and even Jesus Christ. The more things change, the more at least some things stay the same.