In 10 years, there might not be many jobs, but there sure will be a lot of spin bikes. (At least, if you believe this ad.)
The Belgian AI startup AiCandy released a new advertisement for their company, mocking AI’s skyrocketing demand for energy. It imagines a 2036 in which humans now power AI through group workouts — and features AI-aged versions of Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos.
The video is a spoof ad for a company called “Energym,” which uses human cycling and rowing classes to generate the energy needed for AI.
By 2030, 80% of humans had lost their jobs, AI Elon Musk says. Those humans have no money or purpose, AI Jeff Bezos adds, but they do have “a lot of time on their hands.”
“What if we could use the energy of humans to power the machines that took away their jobs,” AI Musk said.
It’s a doomsday scenario, of course. (It’s not clear that any AI job apocalypse is coming soon.) But it’s one that resonated: The Instagram Reel has over 4 million views, while accounts continue to repost it on X, including one with nearly 2 million views.
“Doesn’t feel like a parody of anything really,” Sen. Chris Murphy wrote.
AiCandy’s Hans Buyse isn’t such a fan of those reposts: “They’re making profit off of it,” he said.
Buyse and his cofounder, Jan De Loore, told Business Insider that they were thrilled with the reach of their videos. They expected some virality, but not the millions of views it would bring to their account.
The duo founded their AI video company in 2025. Buyse spent two decades working in commercials. De Loore is a motion designer and paints on the side. He has started using AI to model his paintings.
Initially, clients gave them lots of pushback. Their feedback was mainly that “it’s polluting, it’s consuming so much energy,” De Loore said. Buyse then came up with the idea of making a video to showcase clean, human-made energy.
The idea was back-burnered until a couple of weeks ago, when De Loore thought to bring it back and frame it around aged US tech moguls.
“It’s a combination also with the fitness hype, and young men that don’t know what to do anymore with their lives,” Buyse said. “It’s all coming together in one 40-second video.”
The founders said they now have an inbox filled with collaboration requests. The Dor Brothers, a popular AI video production company, offered them a job, Buyse said.
Still, they’re holding out for one email in particular.
“We’re just awaiting Elon,” De Loore said.
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