Artificial Intelligence

Bernie Sanders Slams AI Firm's 'Stop Hiring Humans' Campaign

Published OCT 28 2025

Story

Above: A bus stop shelter with an ad for Artisan AI in San Francisco, Calif., on Sept. 30, 2025. Image credit: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

The Facts

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) responded on X on Monday to Artisan AI's billboard campaign, questioning how displaced workers would "survive" without jobs or income when AI and robotics "replace millions of jobs" across the U.S.
Tech Startups
Bernie Sanders on X
The controversy began when Artisan launched a billboard campaign in San Francisco, Calif., last year with messages like "Stop Hiring Humans" and "Hire Artisans, Not Humans," to promote their AI sales software, called Ava, which is an AI business representative.
CBS News
Bay Area Current
The company's CEO, Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, stated they spent under $50,000 on Manhattan billboard placements but generated hundreds of millions of online impressions when people photographed and shared the controversial advertisements on social media.
New York Post
Futurism
Artisan reported that their controversial marketing strategy led to over $2 million in new annual recurring revenue during October and November, their biggest months ever, despite receiving thousands of death threats and widespread public backlash.
Bay Area Current
Artisan
The startup later modified their campaign with softer messaging including asterisks such as "Stop Hiring Humans *For Work They Hate" after facing significant negative public reaction and criticism from labor advocates and social media users.
CBS News
Bay Area Current
Despite promoting AI employee replacements, Artisan stated on its website that it doesn't "actually want people to stop hiring humans," and that it's "actively" hiring people, adding that its goal is to "automate the work that humans don't enjoy," particularly outbound sales tasks.
Bay Area Current
Tech Startups
Artisan

Sources Split

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The Spin

Techno-skeptic narrative

AI companies are openly mocking workers with dystopian marketing campaigns that celebrate mass unemployment. These companies, which are expected to fire hundreds of thousands of workers in another round of layoffs, treat human displacement as a joke, revealing their true contempt for regular people who need jobs to survive.

Bay Area Current

Futurism

Techno-optimist narrative

The provocative AI marketing is just attention-grabbing strategy that actually highlights job growth in AI-adopting companies. Research shows most businesses investing in AI actually hire more employees, not fewer, while automating only the tedious tasks workers hate doing anyway.

Artisan

CBS News

David P Reichwein on X