Judgment Day: Some local businesses turn to AI images, but not without community pushback

A sign outside of your favorite corner store. A billboard seen driving along I-279. A flyer for a DJ set coming up later in the month. As of late, it’s commonplace for all of these things to have been generated by AI, saving a given business time and money it might have otherwise spent commissioning or designing its own ads. This sort of thing used to stir up public discussion as recently as last year, when the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership made a $10,000 pledge to local art after designing a Picklesburgh shirt using AI tools . But now, apathy and acceptance of our constant technological progression looks to have overwhelmed the discourse on the use of AI large language models. Still, one major holdout remains: local artists. Pittsburgh City Paper spoke to three local artists, along with the aptly named Pittsburgh AI Wall of Shame, to get a sense of how the enshittification of ads has affected them. The Wall of Shame By far the most aggressively opposed to AI design, the Pgh AI Wall of Shame posts semi-frequently to an Instagram account with a few thousand followers under a simple premise: viewers and internal members of the Wall find AI out in the wild, gather the evidence, and upload it to shame those who prompted the designs. Speaking under conditions of anonymity to City Paper , members of the Wall of Shame say they want to influence the region’s culture, and added they are opposed to AI from both an artistic and environmental standpoint. “We’re at risk of losing the things that give our communications uniqueness, cultural connection, regional specificity, and intangible soul,” the Wall of Shame tells CP . “We can end up with billboards, flyers, photos, logos, signage, and more all becoming the visual equivalent of cookie-cutter condos.” General AI use has been frequently correlated with wasting water. According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, keeping data centers cool — buildings required to