(KRON) -- Anyone glancing upward while walking around San Francisco in the past few days might have noticed a now-familiar three-word marketing tagline circling overhead. On several days this week, a small plane towing a banner emblazoned with the words "Stop Hiring Humans" has been spotted circling the city. The slogan will be familiar to almost anyone who has driven or walked around San Francisco in the past two years. The "Stop Hiring Humans" ads have been fixtures on billboards and bus shelters around the city. Band has truck stolen in Oakland, postpones Bay Area show The controversial campaign is the work of Artisan, an SF-based artificial intelligence startup founded by Jaspar Carmichael-Jack. The dystopian ads urge employers to spurn hiring people in favor of "artisans," AI sales agents that, according to the billboards, "won't come into work hungover." Speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference last year, Carmichael-Jack called the campaign "shock value" and admitted it was meant to be triggering. The strategy has apparently paid off for Artisan. In August, the company announced it had raised $25 million Series A led by Glade Brook Capitol, which counts Perplexity, Stripe and SpaceX among its portfolio. AI billboards are ubiquitous around San Francisco, with many of the startups employing "rage baiting" techniques in their advertising. Until recently, if you wanted to escape from it all, you could at least look up to the clear blue sky for a little relief. Not anymore, though. ...read more read less