Brewing brand love: how AI startups are reaching subscribers through coffee — the cappuccinos are camouflage.
Coffee slops?
Why are AI companies suddenly opening up coffee shops?
Submitted 5 months ago by Curmuffin@fedia.io to technology@lemmy.world
https://sfstandard.com/2025/10/18/ai-companies-suddenly-opening-coffee-shops/
Comments
DamienGramatacus@lemmy.world 5 months ago
eskimofry@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I know i sound like a doomer but…
maybe the bubble is about to burst and this is just panic diversification of assets? it sure is funny to attribute it to that.
scarabic@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I mean LOL maybe???
SaraTonin@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I love how the photo of the inside of the place looks like it’s ai generated
Kissaki@feddit.org 5 months ago
We get so many free digital services from mega corps. If it weren’t for the physical costs involved, we’d already be getting physical goods like that.
Imagine a possible future of Meta, Google, and Microsoft shops. Selling under cost to bind customers.
FireWire400@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Reminds me of that uWink restaurant lol
darkmogool@feddit.org 5 months ago
There surely will be microphones to train the AI.
myfunnyaccountname@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
Capturing all network traffic for training.
Zen_Shinobi@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Great. Now “AI” will burn my coffee because it “thinks” I would rather have a hotter temp than I pick.
Good thing I like tea instead lol
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 5 months ago
i wouldnt be surprised it gets confused between, 150F and 150celcius.
Zen_Shinobi@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Or you know, 150K
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
asked via touchscreen if they’re Perplexity Pro subscribers. A “yes” earns them 50% off drinks; a “no” triggers a QR code for a one-month free trial of the $20 service.
Look at how desperate they are to get a return before the bubble bursts. It’s hilarious.
shalafi@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It’s like the dotcom bubble in that everyone is striking out in every which direction on this neew tech, hoping they’re the last man standing.
This one is far worse though. Not sure how I’ll survive it, but I sense my IT career is over.
AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
Your career will most likely be safe. After all, someone has to comenin after the AI burns everything down to properly repair and fix the mistakes.
1984@lemmy.today 5 months ago
People will be very surprised when they are wrong about this, and the IT field actually grows because of Ai.
aesthelete@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I sense my IT career is over
Me too. Honestly, even if it never deflates I think long term I’m out.
Is there anything we can do with these skills other than enrich billionaire tech bro assholes? I tried very briefly tonight to look for nonprofits that are looking for software people and saw nothing but search engine mismatches.
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 5 months ago
the dotcom bubble saw us build out thousands of miles of fiber that didn’t get lit for a decade. still was fine tho after that time.
tell me aibros, how many of those AI specific accelerator cards will be useful in a decade?
lol
MangoCats@feddit.it 5 months ago
I sense my IT career is over.
The IT grunt work is going to get 10x easier (need 1/10th the head count for grunt work).
If you do more than grunt work, as most “computer” people actually do, your job should be safe from AI for a while.
webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 5 months ago
Never thought that my dislike for the taste and smell of coffee would become something that actively makes me glad.
jpv2390@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
They must be competing for markethare - they need more users. If those AI companies really are getting by with VC and other crap debt only this MO can only be propped up by increasing user numbers.
scarabic@lemmy.world 5 months ago
A billboard costs money. A cafe also has your brand name on it but can be operated at a profit.
I don’t know what this is really all about but I’m just thinking through possibilities. It could definitely just be a stupid marketing fad. The number of eyeballs a cafe will get in a metropolis like Seoul is tremendous. If they had a cafe in every town across bumfuk suburbia that would be another story.
alecbowles@feddit.uk 5 months ago
They need to start making money somehow. Overpriced coffee sounds like a good start
anomnom@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
The first hint that this place is run by an AI company comes at checkout, when guests are asked via touchscreen if they’re Perplexity Pro subscribers. A “yes” earns them 50% off drinks; a “no” triggers a QR code for a one-month free trial of the $20 service.
I’d have said “fuck off” and left without my coffee.
goatinspace@feddit.org 5 months ago
Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 5 months ago
I bet they’ll eventually get caught using coffee shop cameras and conversations for AI training, say it’s for training a security product or something.
scarabic@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It seems like there are probably ways they could do that without calling so much attention to themselves.
stringere@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Free WiFi!
Tamo240@programming.dev 5 months ago
This is 100% the answer, the only solution to the model decay from LLM outputs overwhelming the web is to start collecting data IRL.
This is also why companies like OpenAI are desperately investing in ‘AI wearables’ that no-one wants. They have to get the unpolluted data from somewhere, and recording real conversations will at least mostly have come from actual humans instead of AI.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 5 months ago
since coffe shops also free wifi, they would want access to the data of laptops, and phones as well.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I don’t think it’s for training really.
It’s way more likely they want to get people together and talking about AI in the hopes they hear literally any plausible method of monetizing it. And stealing that idea.
With the added bonus when you check out, if you subscribe to it’s AI you get 50% off the drinks, if you don’t you get a month of the AI service with you’re drinks.
The way AI effects your brain is kind of like drugs. It’s feels fun and novel at first, and a lot of people get tired and let it go. Certain people are wired different and get hooked.
Maybe it’s because I just re-watched Snowfall, but it feel like when Franklin cooked up his first key and just gave it away. They’re trying to hook people who would never intially buy it, because some of them won’t be able to stop.
DFX4509B_2@lemmy.org 5 months ago
Really? AI companies going Herbalife now? Because this reminds me of how Herbalife fronts would typically pop up.
Bebopalouie@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
Heehee, well they have to make a profit somehow.