AI Billboards Are Ruining San Francisco's Psyche
The AI Billboards Are Killing SF
San Francisco's outdoor ads have devolved into cryptic riddles aimed at AI insiders, leaving residents feeling confused and angry. The author argues these nonsensical billboards, like 'Your agents need agents!' and 'Book your hotel on the moon,' are causing real psychological damage and reshaping the city's identity in a troubling way. While they've become a joke online, the author insists it's not funny—it's a dystopian shift that erodes community well-being.
They are, instead, riddles aimed at a tiny subset of AI insiders.
- Brendinooo
"Killing SF" is overly dramatic, and others have noted that the phenomenon observed here is not unique to AI, or SF.
But there is something a little...alienating about advertising that's not meant for you.
It's a dumb example, but in Pittsburgh the football stadium was renamed from Heinz Field to Acrisure Stadium.
Of course, "Three Rivers Stadium", the name of the previous building, was best. It's not a name that tries to sell you something. But if you must sell something, "Heinz" is extremely good: it sells products for everyone, and it has historical roots in the area. Of the people, for the people.
But Acrisure? I've looked it up a few times and I still can't remember exactly what it is. Business services or insurance or something like that. And I'm sure that both Acrisure and the Steelers don't really care that I don't know what it is, because it's not really for the vast majority of the 65,000 people who show up on a Sunday to cheer for the team.
That's...weird.
- gsnedders
I feel like SF has been full of frequently inscrutable billboards as long as I’ve been coming here — at least a decade.
It’s maybe got slightly more extreme recently, with an even larger percentage of them being inscrutable to me as someone who both works in tech and has a decent grasp of current industry trends.
I’ve never really got it — if even I don’t know what you’re advertising (or often, who is advertising!), how does this help your sales?
- compiler-guy
If you drive through Las Vegas, all the billboards are about casinos. If you drive through farm country, all the billboards are about the local cash crop.
Advertisers target the people likely to see the ad and spend money on the topic. Billboards are extremely geographically restricted, so local interest dominates. This isn't really news.
And yes, they are annoying.
- minimaxir
It's more of a tragedy of the commons. There are so many AI billboards in SF that I legitimately can't differentiate any of the AI startups anymore, and that's even if they say what their product actually is.
- cdrnsf
I saw the band Chat Pile a while back in Los Angeles. They played the previous night in San Francisco — their singer mentioned the billboards and led the crowd in an ethusiastic chant of "F*k AI!".