The 'AI' behind this SF billboard is one guy typing by hand

A $6,000-a-month billboard at Sixth and Folsom in SoMa advertises ChatTJB, "the leading chat interface powered by AI." The asterisk — half-hidden behind a tree branch — clarifies that AI stands for "average individual." Behind the box: Tucker Bryant, 32, a Stanford grad and ex-Google/wikiHow marketing manager, typing every reply by hand for up to 10 hours a day.

It scaled about as well as you'd expect. Bryant fielded ~15,000 prompts from ~11,000 people in the first week, peaking above 5,000 prompts an hour one weekend, and has crossed 100,000 total. He's since mostly stepped away from the keyboard and started routing questions to volunteers — over 10,000 people have applied to serve as Average Individuals, with the waitlist growing roughly 1,000 a day. His own review of the output: "very, very mid. Objectively mid."

The real target is what Bryant calls cognitive surrender — taking the model's answer without scrutiny. He points to Wharton research finding that people given incorrect AI guidance scored 15 percentage points worse than people given no AI at all. Which is what gives the gag teeth: tens of thousands of users typed into an interface labeled "AI" and never once asked what was actually on the other end.

Why it matters: the "AI-powered" label now buys trust on its own — so it can be claimed by anything, including one tired guy with a keyboard.