For Father’s Day, Buffalo & Bergen owner Gina Chersevani used ChatGPT to create a social media promotion for her DC bagel shops. Her husband died last fall, making the holiday emotionally draining; she did not closely examine the AI-generated image, which featured a man’s arm twisted backwards holding a bag of bagels and a baseball cap reading “BAGEL PROVIDER EST. ALWAYS,” while ChatGPT hallucinated New York skyscrapers along DC’s skyline. A regular informed Chersevani she was “getting slammed on Reddit,” where a post amassed more than 100 comments mocking the post. She also received DMs, including one calling her a “fucking loser.” Chersevani said people attacked her “like I caused all the issues for AI that ever happened.” She deleted the image from Instagram and later posted about the backlash. Chersevani noted she works with countless artists and had not been following the larger cultural conversation around AI. The incident exemplifies local businesses caught in the AI debate, where thin margins and overstretched staff make AI tempting, but operators risk backlash for not supporting local creatives or taking shortcuts.