Yes, that was the headline in a recent advertising campaign by the San Francisco AI firm, Artisan. "Stop Hiring Humans," it read. The tech-bros thought it would be cute. They believed the snarky, clueless provocation would substantially monetize Ava, their AI-powered sales assistant tool. This coming at a painful time economically and when people are already losing jobs because of AI. Regrettably, the campaign was a huge success promotionally and monetarily. It failed morally, ethically, and professionally, however, and illustrates an indifference tech titans can have to living and working in a civilized society.
The Artisan CEO bragged about the results of the outdoor campaign and the attention it brought to their brand. Levitating high above the real world, Artisan Co-Founder & CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack wrote on the company's blog in December that the campaign "generated millions of impressions, sparked heated debate, and drove (two million dollars) in new (revenue)." He continued, "We knew we needed something different. Something that would stand out. Something … provocative. What we didn't know was that our controversial approach would lead to 10s of millions of impressions, 1000s of death threats, 100s of articles and our biggest growth months ever. Was it worth it? Yes." By whose measure, Brute, by whose measure?
The young CEO wrote of needing to break through the clutter and separate the brand from the pack. This is completely understandable in every business, but especially in the dynamic, ever-changing world of artificial intelligence. It's fine to be creative and even quite edgy. But when does it cross the line? A firm can draw all manner of attention to itself, in a world apparently wherein bad press is good and no press is bad, with all manner of vulgarities or oblivious takes on social, political, and economic conditions.
I wouldn't want to work at, partner with, or buy from an organization with this kind of callousness or these kind of values disguised as attention-getting pizzazz. Oh wait, that's when the cliched reaction to my saying that is always, "Well, you're not our target market for employment or sales" or "You're old and you don't get it." Later in his blog piece, of course, Carmichael-Jack wrote that his admitted rage-baiting worked because ... drum roll, please ... "Luckily, the people who were mad aren’t our target audience."
You might be inspired by Warren Oates in the movie "Stripes" (1981) to say, "Lighten up, Francis." No, I don't think so. Moral, ethical, and professional standards are being breached daily and we continue to dredge new lows. I support AI. I mean, what choice do we have anyway? AI will provide enormous opportunities and advantages across all aspects of society. At the same time, however, it is very dangerous when left in the wrong hands.
Just witness the different path Anthropic has taken against its competitor OpenAI on fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. In rejecting the radically dangerous demands of an out-of-control Secretary of Defense, Anthropic has chosen to stand for something greater than themselves and to behave as a reasonable corporate citizen. Unlike OpenAI, they see the bigger picture; they're playing a longer-term game, and they actually seem to care. DOD using AI to reduce or remove human beings from weapons engagement or to spy on U.S. citizens are wholly unacceptable propositions. Of course, it's a much more egregious if not catastrophic problem than a mere advertising campaign. Sadly, however, it reflects a similar mindset.
