Social media in Iraq has been flooded with widespread criticism following the release of a promotional video for a tea company that used artificial intelligence. The video showed the poet Muhammad Mahdi al-Jawahiri and former Prime Minister Nuri al-Said serving tea to the current Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. Many considered this scene an affront to national and historical symbols. Commentators noted that depicting figures of the stature of al-Jawahiri or al-Said 'serving tea' carries a humiliating symbolic meaning in the Iraqi social context. Although the act is simple and daily, it is viewed as a service-oriented role that is inconsistent with the literary or political stature of these symbols.
