Consider this the last time I will ever write about an AI billboard campaign.
Okay, that’s probably not true. Maybe one of these days an AI company will do something more interesting with their marketing than ragebait, but for now this is where it ends: With one campaign so convoluted, so hypocritical, and so ultimately boring that I am obliged to hold it up as typical of the entire AI industry today.
In fact, this product launch was so ridiculously layered that it is difficult to explain it chronologically, so let’s start at the end.
Yesterday, a virtual receptionist company called Abby Connect revealed via PR blast to various newsrooms (including Gazetteer SF) and a post on its blog that it is behind the “Dear World” advertisements with slogans like “Humanity had a good run” and “I can’t stay silent any longer” that have been popping up around the city since October. These ads directed passersby to check out dearworld.ai, where they could sign up for mysterious newsletters unpacking the dangers of AI. Predictably, the ads attracted negative attention on Reddit, where stunty campaigns can drum up organic engagement from everyday people and journalists looking for stories.
As Abby explained, the ads were deployed as part of a larger campaign to “wake you up. To show you that even in the AI industry, we’re thinking about ways to help humanity.”
Oh, and to sell Abby AI, their virtual receptionist tool.
But it goes even further, because at this point in the AI hype cycle, it appears AI companies selling snore-inducing products like phone-menu bots must go to great lengths to cut through the noise generated by their attention-hungry competitors.
The fake “Dear World” campaign was just one part of Abby AI’s grandiose, three-pronged marketing scheme: The second part was a website for another upsetting but fake product, an “AI parenting tool” called Nurture OS that offered to “calibrate your children in real time.”
Which brings us to phase three: The PR campaign, in which local journalists are offered a chance to be “the first publication to reveal the source behind this anonymous citywide campaign,” a real prize for newsrooms looking to help promote an AI receptionist tool.
Tomorrow, I’m sure, other news outlets will report on this inane campaign totally credulously, complete with earnest quotes from the Abby founders that say something like, “Humanity won't just weaken, it will erode at the foundations if we continue on this path,” which is what Nathan Strum, CEO of Abby Connect, is quoted as saying in the PR blast. I’m sure they will mention their mission to do “tech with empathy,” and I bet they will reiterate their ultimate campaign message, a play on Artisan AI’s infamous “Stop hiring humans” tagline: “Stop firing humans.”
What all this says to me is that the AI industry does not just create products that generate digital content slop but an entire culture of IRL slop. As the technology improves, all AI-generated text, images, and videos shared online will likely become indistinguishable from human-generated content. Fraudulence is fundamental AI culture, and vigilance is key. Similarly, as the companies inflating up the AI bubble get more desperate to find customers for products that so far don’t drive much profit, we should be extra skeptical of any loud AI-related campaigns, even those that purport to criticize, satirize, or subvert the industry.
We’ve reached peak anti-AI-actually-AI-advertising, which means it's time for phase four: A well-deserved backlash.
