SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- The CEO of a San Francisco AI startup that's billboards went viral for telling people to "Stop Hiring Humans," admitted the campaign was intentionally meant to be triggering. Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, the co-founder and CEO or Artisan, spoke on a panel on "The Pros and Cons of Hiring AI agents as Early Employees" on Wednesday, the final day of TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.

The startup's "Stop Hiring Human" marketing campaign, which advertises its product, an AI sales agent dubbed, "Ava," went viral -- and not in a positive way -- when it first popped up on San Francisco bus shelters and billboard late last year. Recently, the campaign received national attention when a picture of one of billboards was tweeted out by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont).

"Billboards across the

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