During my commutes, I’ve noticed advertisements for AI products or that use AI imagery on subway cars, in transfer tunnels, and in stations. I’ve made a practice of pausing to take photos of them. What I’m really looking for is not just the ads themselves but where people have interacted with them somehow using graffiti, stickers, etc. Like data centers, subway ads are a form of AI made manifest that people can grasp at and push against – a proxy for the tech billionaire oligarchs that people are tired of, angry at, and oppressed by. People may not be able to resist using AI at their jobs when they are required to and they may not be able to redistribute wealth in a more equitable way (at least not in the immediate future), but they can express their disapproval of suspected or real “AI slop” by writing on ads.

Skechers ads frequently attract the ire of subway commuters.

Next to an ad for Alinea, an AI investment company that calls its “companion” Allie, a sticker by the digital designer and artist Oliver Coria advertises OpenOliver. OpenOliver is a fake chatbot website and app – instead of an AI system attempting to communicate like a human, it’s humans communicating like AI.

Here, Back Market, an e-commerce platform for refurbished tech, attempts to harness the backlash against AI and Gen Z‘s anemoia by portraying nostalgic gear as preferable to the latest technology.