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In San Francisco, in the heart of Silicon Valley, an AI startup called Artisan has spent an incredible amount of money and destroyed the city with an ad campaign that is giving people what they need. Artisan’s tagline: “Stop Hiring People.”
The company, which is backed by startup Y-Combinator, sells what it calls “AI Employees” or “Artisan”. What the company actually sells software it is designed to support customers and sales service. The company seems to have taken a pow-wow and decided that the best way to boost its regular sales is to spend on advertising announcing the end of the public era.
Writing about the advertising campaign, the SFGate store he realizes that The posters—scattered throughout the city—include plugs like these:
“Artisans can’t complain about a good working life”
“Artisan’s Zoom cameras ‘won’t work’ today.”
“Find the Craftsmen, not the people.”
“The era of the AI workforce has arrived.”
Yes, bad things. At first glance, you may wonder who the people behind these posters are. After all, posters are often seen by people, and, as far as we can tell, most people are happy to be hired. Therefore, it is a social media campaign that can be seen to choose its target audience. Yet beneath the initial silliness of it all, there is a clear explanation: commercials are designed to drive people crazy, and thus, grab the headlines.
In an interview with SFGate, the company’s CEO, Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, defended his company’s decision to publicize its products by promoting the end of human labor. “They’re dystopian, but so is AI,” the CEO told the ad. “The way the world works is changing.” He added: “We want something that catches the eye – you don’t drag with boring messages.”
Yes, Carmichael-Jack was trying to tap into the American public’s anger at AI — and he succeeded. I am writing about him, later. He has succeeded in causing the outrage that his media campaign was designed to inspire and is now being questioned by the media.
However, just as he is using us to promote his company, perhaps we can use Carmichael-Jack to make a point. I agree with Carmichael-Jackson that his posters are “dystopian” – just like what he’s selling – which gets to the heart of what’s gone wrong with the whole thing. It’s clear that Silicon Valley’s monkeys are now conjuring up the worst-case scenario of a Bladerunner-style hellscape that their market drives us. They can act like they are making the world a better place. If it gets in the way of making money, there’s no need to even pretend.
