As if advertisements couldn't get any more personalized, one digital entertainment company will soon offer ads featuring your own face. 

In a Reddit post on r/Anticonsumption, one person highlighted news about DirecTV's new AI-generated screensavers. 

The post links to an ARS Technica article that describes the AI ads that we can expect to see next year. DirecTV partnered with Glance to display AI-generated ads and content on Gemini streaming devices. 

Once the technology is released, DirecTV/Gemini users can create and customize AI avatars of themselves, and then the screensaver will recommend products for purchase. 

Glance's CEO and founder, Naveen Tewari, said the personalized AI screensavers will allow people to "instantly select a brand and reimagine themselves in the brand catalog right from their living-room TV itself."

This technology is unsettling to many people because it takes intrusive, over-the-top advertisements to a whole new level. 

When many people bought Gemini devices to stream their favorite shows, they didn't expect to be inundated with ads on their screensavers. With even more ads shoved in people's faces (and actually featuring their faces), companies are perpetuating a culture of unnecessary purchases, overconsumerism, and wasteful behavior. 

This AI overstep feels different from other types of ads because it directly ties consumerism to you personally, rather than a generic audience. Ads like this risk blurring the line between authentic content and advertising, with significant potential for misuse and exploitation. 

Many advertisers are pushing the boundaries of what artificial intelligence can do with AI-generated content at the expense of a real human experience. Intrusive ads that promote excess consumption, wasteful spending, and environmental degradation are everywhere, from elevators to floating billboards and illuminated trucks outside our homes.  

If you — like the Reddit users who commented on the DirecTV news — are fed up with intrusive advertisements, you can take steps to be more intentional about your digital and physical consumption. 

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For example, you can turn off app features that let ads infiltrate your life, or delete apps you feel violate your privacy or sense of inner peace. To curb overconsumption, make daily lifestyle changes to reduce household waste. 

Instead of buying brand-new items, consider secondhand shopping at thrift stores. Reuse leftovers to reduce food waste, upcycle reusable items rather than throwing them away, and repurpose old containers wherever possible. 

When others see the steps you're taking to live a more intentional, mindful, sustainable life, they may also be inspired to reject unwanted ads and technology for the sake of their health and the planet. 

"I would sooner go back to living in the Stone Age than accept this," one Reddit user commented on the AI face ads story. 

"Not my face, they won't," someone else wrote. 

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