'This Is High-quality' Creator Says AI Startup Stole His Meme for Subway Advertisements – Decrypt

KC Inexperienced created “This Is High-quality” in 2013 for his webcomic Gunshow. A cartoon canine sits smiling in a burning room and declares every part is ok. In the event you’ve spent any period of time on the web over the past decade, you’ve little doubt seen the meme. However now, an AI startup is utilizing it to promote gross sales automation software program by way of an advert in a New York subway station. The issue is no person requested Inexperienced.

The corporate is Artisan, finest identified for plastering “Cease Hiring People” billboards throughout San Francisco and that includes the notorious “Wolf of Wall Avenue” Jordan Belford on its adverts. Of their newest marketing campaign, the canine’s speech bubble now reads “My pipeline is on hearth,” with an overlay urging commuters to “Rent Ava the AI BDR.”

Ava is Artisan’s AI-powered enterprise growth consultant—the core product of an organization that raised $25 million in April 2025.

Inexperienced discovered the best way artists normally discover out today: somebody tagged him on social media. It was Daniel Radosh, an Emmy-winning Each day Present senior author and producer whose upcoming horror-comedy The Large Kill is at present in manufacturing. “There is not any manner KC Inexperienced accepted this,” Radosh wrote on Bluesky. “Exhausting to imagine an AI firm would simply steal somebody’s work although!”

Inexperienced’s response was not good. “I have been getting extra of us telling me about this and it is not something I agreed to,” he wrote. “It has been stolen like AI steals.”

“Please vandalize it if and while you see it.”

The put up was already vandalized when Radosh tagged Inexperienced.

KC Inexperienced mentioned he’d emailed somebody on the firm however did not count on a lot of a response. A couple of minutes later, he muted the thread. The notifications had turn into overwhelming. “Go to mattress, it is late,” he instructed the pile-on.

Artisan mentioned it has “loads of respect for KC Inexperienced and his work” and was reaching out to him straight. In a follow-up assertion the corporate mentioned it had scheduled time to talk with him.

Artisan’s CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack has written that the “Cease Hiring People” marketing campaign was “a provocation” designed to generate consideration. He additionally acknowledged on the corporate weblog that the billboard was “largely only for consideration” and that he would not truly imagine AI will exchange all human staff. The corporate has since doubled down on controversy as a advertising and marketing technique—and this time it has a copyright downside to indicate for it.

This is not an remoted sample. The unconsensual use of AI to steal creators’ works, photos, and IP is a rising development that appears removed from ending.

In February 2025, Israeli digital entrepreneurs created a viral deepfake video that includes AI-generated likenesses of Scarlett Johansson, Drake, Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Spielberg and others—all sporting anti-Kanye protest shirts—with none of the celebrities’ consent. Johansson condemned it: “The potential for hate speech multiplied by A.I. is a far better risk than anyone one that takes accountability for it,” she mentioned.

Final 12 months, MrBeast pulled an AI thumbnail device after creators together with Irish YouTuber “Jacksepticeye” discovered their logos and visible types used with out permission in promotional supplies. Artists have filed waves of copyright litigation over AI coaching knowledge. Inexperienced’s case is distinct from all of these—Artisan did not prepare a mannequin on his work. They only took the picture, tweaked it with AI, and put it on a wall.

Inexperienced mentioned he’s contemplating authorized motion.