Ethos seemed like one of Austin's hottest restaurants back in 2024. The eatery rose to prominence in October as tens of thousands of followers flocked to its Instagram page, a showcase of lustrous dishes such as the crustless pizza ball and the eye-grabbing dust mite bread loaf.

There was only one small problem: Ethos only existed on Instagram, and its seemingly impossible bites were really just AI slop. Though the intentions behind the bizarre social media stunt remain a mystery, Ethos was a huge red flag, cautioning us on the slow creep of AI into the food and beverage industry.

If it was intended as a warning, it was a prescient one. Over the months following Ethos' viral blowup, many in the restaurant industry have turned to large language model (LLM) software to roll out surge prici

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