OpenAI’s supposedly ‘leaked’ Super Bowl ad with ear buds and a shiny orb was a hoax

Source: The Verge

Background

The Reddit post (now removed) described an employee upset that their ad didn’t air, allegedly sharing a video hosted on Streamable. The footage featured Alexander Skarsgård and suggested a collaboration with Jony Ive on OpenAI hardware. The account that “found” the ad, named “wineheda,” was later discovered to have been a bookkeeper in Santa Monica a year earlier, making the claim of insider access highly suspicious.

Official response

OpenAI president Greg Brockman labeled the story “fake news” in a tweet: link.
Spokesperson Lindsay McCallum Rémy also confirmed the hoax, writing “this is totally fake.”: link

Investigation

• Reddit origins: The original “wineheda” account has been deleted. An Internet Archive search shows the user’s prior activity was unrelated to advertising, focusing on bookkeeping services.
• Promotional email: Max Weinbach shared screenshots of an email he received a week earlier that offered payment of $1,146.12 to promote a tweet about an OpenAI hardware teaser featuring Skarsgård. source
• Fake media: AdAge reporter Gillian Follett tweeted about a fabricated headline that falsely claimed she reported a change to OpenAI’s Super Bowl ad. OpenAI CMO Kate Rouch also referenced an “entire fake website” created to support the hoax. source

![OpenAI hoax ad]