DirecTV Customers Will Soon See Their Own Faces in AI-Generated TV Ads

DirecTV has partnered with Glance, an artificial intelligence company, to allow people using its Gemini streaming devices to see AI-generated screensavers featuring their own faces.

Glance, owned by a mobile ad company, said it will add this new AI feature to DirecTV Gemini devices in 2026. If you own a Gemini device -- either the Gemini, which works via satellite, or the Gemini Air dongle if you're a broadband customer -- the TV screensaver will allow you to create an AI avatar of yourself. 

You can dress your AI avatar, and the screensaver will offer shopping links to those clothes.

In a press release, DirecTV added that viewers will be able to "engage in interactive screensaver experiences across lifestyle, travel, health, auto, seasonal events and local trends, directly on the TV screens." 

One example the company shows is an image of the Grand Canyon, where you can click a button saying Show Me Here to see your AI self in the scene.

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"DirecTV audiences who stream TV through our Gemini devices will now get the opportunity to reimagine their interactions with their TV screen, with personalized content, entertainment, news and shopping recommendations in real time," DirecTV SVP of product marketing Vikash Sharma said in a press release.

Glance previously teamed up with Samsung and also introduced AI-generated ads of members on the Samsung Galaxy phone's lock screen. These AI images similarly have a shoppable component. 

For Gemini devices, the AI-generated images will appear on screensavers only when the TV is idle for 10 minutes or longer. 

According to a Glance blog post earlier in the year, the company says that by generating AI avatars, the online shopping experience is more personalized. 

While this may be helpful to some, it could be a nuisance to others who aren't looking for more TV ads or are worried about their data security. This is after inMobi, the company that owns Glance, was sued for tracking unsuspecting users even after they denied the company permission.

E-commerce companies like Amazon have also been integrating AI into their systems.