A 14-by-48-foot billboard went up in San Francisco's SoMa district on Aug. 5 promising "ChatTJB: The leading chat interface powered by AI." A footnote in the corner explains what "AI" actually stands for here: "average individual."
There is no model, no algorithm and no backend running ChatTJB. There is only Tucker Bryant, a 32-year-old artist and former Google employee, sitting at a keyboard for up to 10 hours a day answering every prompt submitted through the site personally.
These are not high-quality responses ... they're very, very mid. Objectively mid.
Tucker Bryant, creator of ChatTJB
A $6,000-a-month bit with a point
Bryant built the ChatGPT-lookalike interface over a single weekend using the AI coding tool Lovable, then paid roughly $6,000 for a month of billboard space at Sixth and Folsom streets, according to the San Francisco Standard. He calls the project a "high-effort shitpost" aimed at San Francisco's AI-soaked culture — a way of asking what happens when people stop questioning polished-sounding answers just because a machine produced them.
The stunt worked better than he expected. Within a week, ChatTJB had logged roughly 15,000 prompts from 11,000 users, according to Fortune, and more than 10,000 people had volunteered to help type back. Bryant has begun testing a handful of vetted volunteers and building moderation tools so the project can outlast his own typing stamina, though he still describes it as a short-term art piece rather than a company in waiting.
I feel like the only way to comment on that is by having skin in the game and playing in that same field.
Tucker Bryant, on why he types every answer himself
Bryant says the billboard's placement, partly obscured by a tree, was unplanned but oddly fitting: most people find ChatTJB online, not by looking up. He has said he would consider handing the project to the right partner if one wanted to keep it going, but for now the "AI" behind San Francisco's newest chatbot is still just one very tired guy.
