--- title: "Bystanders Horrified by Slightly-Too-Honest AI Billboard" description: "The AI billboard asks you to visit a website called Replacement.AI, which brags that humans are \"no longer necessary.\"" date: "2025-10-25" modified: "2025-10-25" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/bystanders-horrified-ai-billboard" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" - "OpenAI" --- # Bystanders Horrified by Slightly-Too-Honest AI Billboard ![The AI billboard asks you to visit a website called Replacement.AI, which brags that humans are "no longer necessary."]() *@mattxiv via X* San Francisco is plastered with billboards [advertising AI tech](), all in varying degrees of in-your-face dystopic. Even so, a new crop of them has managed to stand out from the pack by being shockingly upfront about the industry's attitude toward regular humans. "Our AI does your daughter's homework. Reads her bedtime stories. Romances her. Deepfakes her," reads a billboard asking you to visit a website called [Replacement.AI](). "Don't worry, it's totally legal \[winking emoji\]." Visiting the website finds an even more overt message: huge text proclaiming that humans are "no longer necessary." "Stupid. Smelly. Squishy. It's time for a machine solution," it reads. "At Replacement.AI, we believe that building AI tools to fix the world's most pressing challenges is an unprofitable waste of time." There's also an [actual quote]() by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman: "AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there'll be great companies." Before you get your pitchforks out: it's satire. The ad was highlighted in a [now-viral tweet]() by makeup artist and influencer Matt Bernstein, before being reshared across the internet [in places like Reddit](), where the joke was lost on many users. To be fair, we can't blame them. The shtick is only *slightly* more outrageous than billboards for actual AI startups that have been plaguing Silicon Valley, like the "[Stop Hiring Humans]()" campaign, which was obviously designed to stir up controversy, as are many others. Angering Luddites or generally just[ ticking you off]() is the [name of the game](). It's a young industry, and apparently so are the people running its marketing. These AI startups may be competitors, but they're all in on an internet-poisoned inside joke together, which the regular Joes that they're ostensibly advertising to are not. Enter Replacement.AI, which parodies the universal irreverence of the San Francisco AI bro, not to mention touching on how many tech CEOs have [openly bragged about replacing their workers with AI]() (often [unsuccessfully]()). "We're not going to bulls\*\*t you about superhuman AI 'empowering workers,'" reads its website. "We're explicitly building machines that are going to be better than you at every task." One of its pages is dedicated to the human artists threatened by AI. "To the Artists replaced by AI – thank you," it says, above a video message from one of the company's purported representatives. The page also has a real quote from OpenAI that the company [submitted to the UK government](): "It would be impossible to train today's leading AI models without using copyrighted materials." Clearly, a lot of effort went into pulling this off. And money: another user spotted several Replacement.AI billboards [in Times Square](). It also has a "CEO" named Dan, [with his own Twitter profile]() and accompanying smug video message. Overall, it's a fun riposte at the people spearheading our ridiculous AI age, but with news like Amazon secretly planning to [replace over half a million jobs at its warehouses with an army of robots](), perhaps it won't be just a joke for much longer. Replacement.AI has a solution for that future: a form where you can "Beg for a place in our bunker." "Just record a video explaining why you agree that humans deserve replacing, and why you deserve a space," it reads, "and we'll maybe consider thinking about letting you in." **More on AI:** *[Meta Allows Deepfake That Irish Presidential Election Is Canceled to Go Viral]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()