On Thursday morning, Meta published an ad to its official Instagram account with the message that artificial intelligence will not “make us less connected” or “leave us behind,” set to the 1972 David Bowie track “Five Years,” which is about the end of the world. The narrator says, “Call us optimists, call us dreamers, call us whatever the hell you want—but we’re betting on people, and we like those odds.” The ad includes lyrics such as “I never thought I'd need so many people” but skips the opening: “News had just come over / We had five years left to cry in / News guy wept and told us / Earth was really dying.” Meta spokesperson Francis Brennan said he “would like to highlight what David Bowie himself said about ‘Five Years’ and its meaning: having optimism for the future,” sending a 1972 quote sourced to BowieBible.com: “If one can take the micky out of the future, and what it is going to be like … It’s going to be unbelievably technological.” BowieBible.com also notes the song “speaks of a dystopian nightmare” and quotes drummer Mick Woodmansey: “Well, we chatted about it, and we knew it was about the end of the world and pretty depressing.” Jeremy D. Larson, deputy director of Condé Nast sister publication Pitchfork, said taking songs out of context for commercials is a time-honored