At yesterday's Made by Google 2025 showcase in New York, Google unveiled something unexpected: playfulness. Hosted by The Tonight Show's Jimmy Fallon in a format more like the talk show he's famous for,

Instead, it went for buzz with paid celeb appearances, including event host Jimmy Fallon and others like Stephen Curry, podcaster Alex Cooper, the Jonas Brothers, and more. The result was a watered-down, cringey, and at times almost QVC-like sales event, which Reddit users immediately dubbed “unwatchable.”

Alphabet’s Google introduced on Wednesday (August 20) a new lineup of Pixel smartphones and gadgets, intensifying its efforts to embed artificial intelligence across a wide ecosystem of products, and it had a well known name to help sell the new products. Julian Satterthwaite reports.