Tampa Bay businesses are getting called out for "AI slop"

It's a debate so prolific that even our unusually vocal airport weighed in: What do we do about the AI flyers?

Why it matters: From local breweries and markets to your friendly neighborhood landscaper, posters made with generative AI are clogging up social media.

And the backlash is real: in comment sections, in Reddit threads, and in the feeds of other organizations that broadcast — using more primitive methods — that they'll never resort to AI images.

Friction point: Supporters say it's a tool that can save time and broaden a company's reach, especially for small businesses with tight margins and few employees.

For AI skeptics, the flyers signal cutting corners (especially when food is involved) and buying into big tech at the potential expense of local artists, the environment and creativity itself.

Case in point: Cage Brewing co-owner Christian Walker grew so frustrated with the snarky comments on his AI-made flyers that he unleashed a rant on Facebook.

"Most of the flyers, graphics and promotional pieces we create with AI would have never existed in the first place," he wrote. "We weren't deciding between hiring a designer or using AI."

Walker has since deleted the post, but it lives on in screenshots on Reddit, where the flyer debate raged in the comments.

Zoom in: Walker's $20-a-month ChatGPT account helps him churn out posters for Cage's near-daily live music lineup. He posts them on social media, where algorithms favor visuals, and on the brewery's calendar wall.

The critics, he told Axios, miss that Cage pays musicians for shows and visual artists for murals and sculptures (like the giant octopus on the building).

"I look at these people commenting and think to myself, 'They have no idea what Cage Brewing is about,'" said Walker, who is also a musician, playing bass and singing in the Grateful Dead cover band Dead Set.

Cage Brewing owner Christian Walker showing the AI-made logo for his band, Dead Set. Photo: Kathryn Varn/Axios

Part of the mural-sculpture by artist Blake Emory adorning the Cage Brewing building. Photo: Kathryn Varn/Axios

Yes, but: He understands fatigue over the monotony of it all. If Cage's AI flyers look the same as everyone else's, what's the point?

"This place has a sh--load of character," said Jamaica Jenkins, who Walker hired in the last few weeks to help with business development and social media. "If we're not showcasing that, maybe we should pivot."

The other side: The human eye for good design is part of why Sun-Ray Cinema co-owner Tim Massett largely avoids AI.

He's worked with two designers who have "shaped Sun-Ray's image over the years," he told Axios.

The latest: Noting that a designer wasn't available, Massett recently posted a bare-bones list of Sun-Ray's October film lineup. While he didn't intend it as a statement on AI use, some of the comments took it there:

"I would take this 100 times before some ai slop poster," one commenter wrote.