Parody billboards in SF and NYC expose how AI marketing has become self-satire

A satirical billboard campaign called Replacement.AI has appeared across San Francisco and Times Square, mocking the AI industry’s attitude toward humans with provocative messages like “Our AI does your daughter’s homework. Reads her bedtime stories. Romances her. Deepfakes her.” The elaborate parody highlights how AI companies’ increasingly brazen marketing tactics have become so outrageous that satire barely distinguishes itself from reality.

What you should know: The fake company’s website boldly declares humans are “no longer necessary” and describes them as “stupid, smelly, squishy.”

• The site states: “At Replacement.AI, we believe that building AI tools to fix the world’s most pressing challenges is an unprofitable waste of time.”
• It features a real quote from Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT): “AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there’ll be great companies.”
• The campaign includes a fictional CEO named “Dan” with his own Twitter profile and video messages.

Why this matters: The satire works because it’s only marginally more extreme than actual AI startup marketing campaigns that have flooded Silicon Valley.

• Real campaigns like “Stop Hiring Humans” have deliberately courted controversy to generate attention.
• Many tech CEOs have openly bragged about replacing workers with AI, often unsuccessfully.
• The parody exposes how the industry’s “internet-poisoned inside joke” culture alienates the general public they’re supposedly serving.

The big picture: This elaborate satire required significant investment, with billboards appearing in both San Francisco and New York’s Times Square.

• Makeup artist and influencer Matt Bernstein’s viral tweet about the billboard sparked widespread discussion across social media platforms.
• Many Reddit users initially missed the satirical nature, highlighting how believable the parody has become.

What they’re targeting: The campaign specifically mocks AI companies’ dismissive attitude toward displaced workers, particularly artists.

• A dedicated page “thanks” artists replaced by AI, featuring a real OpenAI quote submitted to the UK government: “It would be impossible to train today’s leading AI models without using copyrighted materials.”
• The website promises: “We’re not going to bulls**t you about superhuman AI ’empowering workers.’ We’re explicitly building machines that are going to be better than you at every task.”

Looking ahead: The timing proves prescient as Amazon recently announced plans to replace over half a million warehouse jobs with robots.

• Replacement.AI offers a mock solution: a form where people can “Beg for a place in our bunker” by recording videos explaining “why humans deserve replacing.”
• The campaign serves as both entertainment and warning about an industry increasingly detached from human concerns.