A popular smoked chicken chain and an artisan bagel shop found out the hard way that Austinites aren’t fans of AI-generated art. Days after posting AI memes and menu specials \u2014 and after receiving “feedback” and “nasty DMs” \u2014 two Austin businesses shared lengthy apologies\u00a0to their hometown audiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n
El\u00a0Pollo Rico and David Doughies Bagelry posted separate statements on\u00a0Instagram last week about their former use of AI and why they decided to stop using it for social media content. Both businesses shared similar intentions that these posts were meant to be fun and harmless, but ended up turning into a bigger conversation.<\/p>\n
El Pollo Rico said they began using AI as a creative tool for some of its social media designs, but recognized that some of this content did not meet the the standards their customers expect from the brand. The post quickly went viral, generating nearly 5,000 likes from many fans who supported the brand’s decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Out of respect for photographers, designers, artists, and most importantly, our customers, we have decided to discontinue the use of AI-generated imagery in our social media content,” the chain’s statement read in part. “At El Pollo Rico, we are always looking for ways to improve–not only our service and the quality of our food, but also the way we represent our brand and connect with our community. Thank you\u00a0for your feedback, your honesty, and for continuing to support El Pollo Rico.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
In response, the company says it received AI backlash in the comments which quickly escalated to “some pretty nasty and threatening DMs.”<\/p>\n
“AI is bad for the environment, destroying entire industries, and devaluing humanities individuality and creativity. But there is a healthy way to converse when dealing with sensitive and controversial issues,” Doughies said. “Yeah AI sucks but doesn\u2019t give people a reason to suck too.”<\/p>\n
Doughies went on to say that running a restaurant in this environment is challenging with rising costs and business being down that he feels burnt out at times. However, their passion for this job fuels their work ethic whether it’s delivering bagels or posting funny memes online.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I put a lot of love into what I do; the bagels, the people, and even these ridiculous posts,” the note reads. “I\u2019m just a person trying to keep a small business alive, make people happy doing something I love, and still find a little time left over for my family.”<\/p>\n
Doughies concluded the message by saying the shop will continue to “focus on the good” and “keep making bagels, keep making stupid posts (without AI), keep making people laugh, and keep believing there\u2019s a lot more good out there than bad.”<\/p>\n
“Most of the time you don\u2019t know a small business is struggling until it\u2019s too late,” Doughies said. “So go support your favorite local businesses and come support your local carb dealer.”<\/p>\n
MySA reached out to both businesses for comment, but didn’t\u00a0hear back before this writing.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A popular smoked chicken chain and an artisan bagel shop found out the hard way that Austinites aren’t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,2108,1112,820],"class_list":["post-460101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-mysaaustin","tag-mysafood","tag-mysastaff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}