Meta's Jolly, OpenAI's Dots: Big Tech's AI Mascots Bid to Calm AI Anxiety
The most feared technology of the decade is getting a teddy bear. The Wall Street Journal reports that the biggest names in AI (Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and Perplexity) have collectively poured $936 million into advertising their AI products in the U.S. since 2023, according to ad-tracking firm MediaRadar. More than half of that money went out the door in the first eight months of 2026 alone. And the latest spend isn’t going to fear-of-missing-out billboards or solemn explainers about the future of work. It’s going to cartoons. ...