So, this is awkward. Just as Samsung accidentally promoted Apple’s iPhone in a Galaxy ad, now Microsoft has done the same in a Surface pro ad. It turns out that whether this was human error or hallucinating AI, if you think tablet, you think iPad.
As spotted by Windows Latest and hundreds of users on X, “Microsoft’s Surface team posted a cozy ‘research buddy’ shot of a Surface Pro on Elon Musk’s X, but we noticed that the screen looks straight out of iPadOS.”
The ad team described Surface Pro as “the ultimate research buddy,” but the image turned out to be the “ultimate” ad for Apple’s iPad. Whilst the hardware is fairly generic, the OS on screen has all the signature iPad components and none from Windows.
“This post has now been deleted from X after hundreds of users called out Microsoft,” Windows Latest says. “It’s a classic iPadOS in the image. The status bar at the top shows time, Wi-Fi, and battery in the iPad layout, and we also have the toolbar icons and the three-dot multitasking control at the top.”
Windows Central says cuts may be to blame. “Microsoft has killed its customer service teams and shuttered retail locations. And in recent years, Microsoft has also begun to gut its social media teams on top, and this weekend saw a pretty hilarious example of that… inexplicably showcasing (a Surface pro) running iPadOS, instead of Windows.”
We will never know the process that led to the error, but it’s hard to look past AI as the likely cause. We’ve all seen errors and hallucinations presented as facts. And this comes just asd the controversy over no-click AI news summaries replaces actual articles. If Ai is going to be the bearer of all facts, it needs to be right almost all of the time.
“Chances are that the social team behind the posts have never actually used a Surface device, sadly,” Windows Central says. “It reminds me of when Surface had the NFL contract and the commentators kept referring to them as iPads. For Microsoft itself to get confused is perhaps somewhat ironic and a bit sad.”
AI carries huge data security risks given direct and indirect prompt injection attacks, inaccurate data and the echoing of disinformation and misinformation. Each time a basic mistake such as this comes to light, it’s a reminder to proceed with caution.
