Bar Has A Reputation For Being Cool, Welcoming, And Progressive. But Now The Owner Keeps Using AI Slop Advertising, And Everything’s Going Downhill Very Quickly
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There’s no questioning that the topic of AI is divisive. Because while some people hail LLMs and chatbots as the future, given their proven capabilities to provide you with a persuasive and compelling answer to all of your questions and requests (albeit not always accurate nor true) there are definite downsides to such powerful technology.
Leaving aside for a moment the very real existential threat that AI insiders admit that the technology poses to humankind, data centres are draining the last droplets of water out of our already parched landscapes, artists and designers, musicians and proofreaders, writers and customer service workers are losing their jobs to the tech.
That’s why, for many folk, the idea of using AI widely is inherently problematic. So naturally, when every other cafe seems to have the same AI generated signs outside (you know, that blocky, sketchy text on top of the swipe of background colour) is downright disgusting. It looks cheap and tacky, you have no idea what the actual food and drink look like, and the owners have chosen not to pay an artist to put their signage together too.
So when the bar staff in this story started noticing the owners posting AI generated content on the socials for their progressive bar, they warned them that their crowd of regulars would not appreciate it. But the bar owners’ response was a far cry from the gratitude you might expect.
Boss makes condescending comments after staff and guests express distaste for AI generated pictures on social media
So, I work at a bar.
We have a history of being known as a very authentic welcoming space, and most of our regulars are progressive individuals.
Before our current boss we would post our own photographed images to the bar’s social media pages. We had this really nice cool and authentic vibe.
We serve craft beer and play alternative music, we are LGBT friendly.
But things are changing in this workplace.
Our current boss and their spouse, who recently got a leading position, are obsessed with AI. They even ‘make’ AI music…
The spouse is taking control over a lot of things us staff used to be in charge of, such as posting to social media.
She posts these ugly generic AI images, with cheesy, soulless, generic text to match.
We have received negative comments from regulars on social media where they express their dislike for the AI slop.
Let’s see how the boss has reacted to that.
The boss responds in condescending rude ways and basically says “get with the times, this is the future”.
We expressed that the bar will lose its status as a cool place that beer nerds want to visit if this continues, but what we receive are rude condescending comments and an AI generated text about why AI art is real art and creativity.
This sucks.
I mourn the loss of this bar who had such a legacy of being the coolest and nicest place.
Yikes. There seems to be a pattern of business owners of a certain generation thinking that AI signage, social media posts, and imagery are super cool.
But to the rest of us, the same old AI images again and again massively turn us off a business.
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Because if they can’t be bothered to design something themselves, and refuse to pay artists or creators to help them if needed, that says a whole lot about their priorities.
Let’s see what folk on Reddit made of this.
This person agreed that they wouldn’t bother with somewhere using AI advertising.
While others thought that AI adverts actually defeated the purpose of advertising.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who can’t complete her work-from-home duties because her mom’s houseguest won’t stop talking.
Meanwhile, this person explained why this was such an issue.
It sounds like this bar was a really cool place in the past, somewhere that the employees were proud to work and where the regulars were keen to visit. But with their new boss and their spouse at the helm, it seems like this ship is going to be sinking really fast. It’s not even about the AI, which admittedly will not go down well with the progressive customers who visit the bar regularly and are likely to be disgusted that the artists and designers that they know and have worked with are now being denied work since the bar owners found AI.
But the biggest problem facing this bar is the fact that the owner apparently knows best, and is unwilling to listen to the views of their staff and customers. Instead of hearing them out and considering whether their words are accurate or not, they are instantly rubbishing them, and even calling out or bullying folk who comment dislike for AI on their socials. This is unquestionably not the right way to behave, and they’re going to lose a lot of good business because of it.
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