Ethos Is Austin’s Best AI Restaurant

"An Instagram-famous restaurant account with roughly 73,000 followers that posts convincingly bizarre, AI-generated food imagery — from a Moo Deng–shaped croissant, shrimp doughnuts and “tiki Marsala” to a “Fighting Foie with Foie” event, motorcycle-sized buffalo wings, chicken-fried ice cream, a prehistoric-size langoustine and Super Mario–themed gummies. The photos show the telltale too-bright sheen of image generators, engagement appears driven partly by bots and partly by genuinely confused fans, and the project stages celebrity-bartender cameos (including off-looking versions of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and a Jason Momoa who is presented as or was a full-time employee). The anonymous operators have extended the hoax to a website with a tongue-in-cheek reservation page (you can “slap a guy with an eel”) and AI-written blog posts about authenticity and influencer marketing, prompting speculation that the stunt is performance art, a marketing exercise, or a satire of Instagram-thirsty restaurant culture." - Chris Crowley