There was a time when tech took the effort to lie to you. The future it envisioned for you was undercooked and sketchy, self-serving and arrogant, but it was a future envisioned for you. The future imagined on these billboards is terrifying, and at best these billboards promise you might be spared that future.

They don't tell you what you can do with their tech; they tell you what you can prevent. Six of the thirtyish non-AI ads promote the new iPhone, five have to do with customer relations management (CRM), one has to do with crypto. The rest: United Airlines, Coors beer, a NorCal casino, a steak house, and "Caring Erin", a divorce attorney. We both cheer when a billboard appears for Shen Yun, a dance troupe sponsored by a Chinese cult. At least it's not AI.