To quote Stefon, Bill Hader’s iconic SNL Weekend Update character, Austin’s hottest club is a restaurant called Ethos. This place has everything: Hamburger bouquets, sausages that curve around a person’s head, a croissant version of Moo Deng the pygmy hippo, Jeff Bezos behind the bar, and a general manager available 24/7.

Here’s what it doesn’t have: Anything real. Ethos has a website and an Instagram account, which is a collection of AI-generated images of fantastical food. It has no address, no actual employees (the general manager is a chatbot that answers questions with some version of “I can’t help. Too bad.”) and nothing to eat. While Ethos’s Instagram has nearly 74,000 followers, it’s basically a lot of pictures that show how far imaginations—and AI imagery—can stretch. It’s attracted interest from foodies, especially those working in the Austin restaurant industry, but whoever is behind Ethos is still a mystery.

Forbes senior contributor Lela London writes that Ethos could be one of two things: A social media experiment, or commentary on how easy it is to fool people with AI. Content generated by AI, London writes, is making inroads in the actual food industry, producing images of bizarre dishes and fictitious menus for ghost kitchen restaurants. Exploiting the loopholes and easy manipulation of social media wasn’t created through the advent of AI. In 2017, a Vice reporter used fake photos and reviews to turn a shed into London’s top-rated restaurant on TripAdvisor.

Most things on the Ethos Instagram look realistic, and many of the comments come from people wanting to try the food. However, a growing proportion of them are some version of “this is all fake.” But there is one aspect of Ethos that is real: Its extensive merchandise page. So while you cannot have something tasty from Ethos, you can buy a “I dined at Ethos” T-shirt or “Croissantasaurus” sticker that shows you’re in on the joke.

AI can also be used to measure data that is difficult to quantify, like how well brand messaging reflects diverse demographics. The SeeMe Index was founded by Asha Shivaji and Jason R. Klein to do just that: use AI to identify the level of inclusivity in different aspects of messaging. I talked to Shivaji, the CEO, about how it works and how brands can improve. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

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Businesses in the fertility and IVF space are finding their ads blocked by TikTok, even though the company’s healthcare advertising policy doesn’t say anything about restricting that industry on the platform. Forbes’ Alexandra Levine writes that many companies that deal with women’s fertility feel they are hitting brick walls when trying to advertise on social platforms—especially TikTok, but also Meta and Google. A 2022 study from the Center for Intimacy Justice found that Meta’s platforms freely allowed ads for men’s health companies promoting products for sexual endurance and related concerns, but blocked ads about menopause, endometriosis and bladder control issues experienced by women. Hertility, a company providing at-home hormone tests to help women assess their risk of fertility decline, joined forces with other women’s health communities to lobby against........

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