J.Crew more like J.ewwwwwwwwwww

Didn’t I tell you we’re in an AI bubble just a few days ago?

Well, if’n you needed more proof, exhibit C:

I walked past a TV earlier when I was at the gym and J.Crew made headlines. 

No, not because they have a new launch that’s attracting mainstream attention. 

And not because Ari Shaffir is hiding molly throughout the store and live tweeting about it either. 

They made headlines because they got exposed for using AI in their ads. Instead of hiring a model to wear their overly expensive clothes, they decided to create an AI model. 

And people got pissed because no matter how much they try to shove AI down our collective throats or businesses try to cut corners by replacing humans with AI slop… 

The people don’t like AI!

Especially when it’s as noticeable as the J.Crew ads. 

Or as noticeable as what happened to fantasy author Lena McDonald who made a oopsies by accidentally leaving an AI prompt shoved in between two paragraphs of a “story.” My use of quotes is because mesuspects that AI “wrote” the story and not Lena. 

Her audience also got pissed off - as they should. 

If you run a bidness and you’re thinking about using AI for anything other than basic accounting stuff, you’re standing over the nuclear button of your business with your index finger floating right above it. 

One wrong move can make your bidness go KA-BOOOOM. 

Because once your audience finds out you’ve been lying to them via AI?

Well, good luck earning their trust back. How’s that trust like a piece of paper analogy go? Once crumpled it can never be uncrumpled again. 

So it is each and every time you use AI. 

(And there have never been more AI “tells” than there are now and this will only continue growing.) 

And herein lies AI’s big, fat, economy-tanking mistake:

None of the corporations who are artificially pumping it up with insane doll-hairs - I’m talmabout bill-yuns and bill-YUNs of funding from 6 or 7 major corporations - actually understand what their audience wants. They hardly even know what their stockholders want. Corporations have gone so past the veil that they’ve become subhuman and have forgotten that most of us humans are still, well, humans. It doesn’t matter how much they try to shove AI down our collective throats… people don’t like AI. 

Here’s the kicker: 

Even if they have fun with ChatGPT and use it to write a poem or do another menial task, they still don’t actually like it. When a human uses it, it feels like lying and cheating because it is. 

Worst part? 

At least for the economy and those 6 or 7 major corporations pumping in 11 to 12 FIGURES (yes, it’s THAT much)?

Well, AI has no actual skills that result in money. 

In fact, the opposite is happening: 

Nothing is worse for a brand than being exposed for using AI. 

Welcome to the AI bubble, cully. 

It’s alive and well and (hopefully, if we’re lucky) will systematically go to these soulless corporations and knock ‘em off one by one. 

But here’s the bad news:

Bubbles send ripples through entire economies. 

It may even affect your business even if you don’t use AI and don’t plan to use AI. 

Luckily, you have a safeguard:

Nothing can “recession-proof” your business quite like a proven offer and an engaged and active email list. 

If’n you have the first, I can help with the second.

So, hit reply, and get ahead of this AI bubble while you still can. 

John