A San Francisco billboard advertising a chatbot named ChatTJB promises instant answers. The twist: every response comes from a 32-year-old former Google project manager named Tucker Bryant, not an algorithm. ChatTJB launched in April, and by August 6 it had fielded over 30,000 queries. At its peak, the service handled about 5,000 prompts per hour. Bryant built the site using the AI tool Lovable, but he personally types every reply.
A $6,000 Billboard and a Surge of Interest
The billboard went up in San Francisco on July 27 at a cost of $6,000. It will remain until late August. The investment paid off in attention. More than 3,000 people applied to volunteer, and Bryant now works with 10 helpers. The website currently notes that "thousands of people are writing in right now." Bryant expected the project to last only a couple of days. Instead, it has become a minor phenomenon, drawing coverage from WIRED and sparking conversations about how easily people defer to machines.
Why a Human Pretends to Be a Bot
Bryant does not consider himself anti-AI. He describes ChatTJB "first and foremost" as an art project. "It was sort of an opportunity for me to provide a little bit of commentary on a strange moment that I feel like we're in," he told WIRED. That strange moment involves a looming AI bubble and companies claiming world-changing technology. Bryant wanted to highlight the ease of deferring to AI for trivial decisions. He recalled asking an LLM whether to wear short or long sleeves on a 65-degree day in San Francisco. "And then I'm like, dude, I've been living in this city for whatever, like seven years," he said. "Like, I know how to handle the weather. And yet, it felt like an easier thing for me to defer to a LLM for advice on that."
That personal habit bothered him. "It felt like something that I wanted to speak on," Bryant said, "because I was like, what am I doing here?" He calls the tendency "cognitive surrender." His answer is a chatbot that forces users to confront the fact that a human is on the other end.
From Jokes to Genuine Conversations
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Early interactions were playful. Bryant drew a frog eating spaghetti, San Francisco Mayor David Lurie as Godzilla, and two black cats eating grass on a table. Users sent birthday dilemmas and personal questions. "People were asking things like, 'Oh, it's my birthday in two weeks, and I don't really want to have a party, what do you think I should do?'" Bryant said. "A lot of people initially were interacting with this thing as a joke or as a funny thing," he added. "And then I think when they realized that they could chat and get actual conversation, some of what people would share would be more personal, sincere, genuine, et cetera."
The shift surprised him. He does not claim to be a great artist or advisor. "I'm not a good artist and my advice is no better than any other person's," Bryant said. "The way I'm interpreting it is that the value for them is just getting a human to bounce those questions off of, as opposed to getting super expert advice." That human connection, not expertise, seems to be the draw.
A Worthless Paid Tier and a Serious Message
ChatTJB Pro costs $5 per month. Bryant describes it as "a worthless tier." About four people have paid for it. He says he did not create ChatTJB to make money. The project is a social experiment, not a commercial venture. WIRED asked ChatTJB how to become a morning person; at the time of writing, there was no response. Bryant has been busy.
He plans to keep ChatTJB going after seeing the enthusiasm. His goal is reflection, not profit. "I really just want people to have an opportunity to take a second look at both their own relationship to technology as well as the world's relationship to technology," Bryant said. He hopes the project brings some lightness to a heavy moment. "I hope that that just makes a weird time sit a little bit lighter," he said, "because I think sometimes that's the best that we can do."
On YouTube, Bryant called ChatTJB "the worst LLM of all time." That is the point. It is slow, human, and imperfect. In an era of instant AI answers, ChatTJB forces users to wait for a person. The project is a reminder that not every question needs a machine. Sometimes a human, even one drawing Godzilla as the mayor, is enough.