AI Founder’s Zombie Shooter Featuring Tenderloin Residents Draws Backlash

Summary

San Francisco AI founder Pierre-Louis Biojout released Night Shift, a browser-based multiplayer shooter set on real Tenderloin streets. Players shoot zombie versions of neighborhood residents, including figures hunched in a posture associated with fentanyl use, and use grenades around locations near Jones and Eddy streets. The trailer also shows Lime scooters, Waymo vehicles, Tesla Cybertrucks, and AI billboards. Biojout promoted the game as a way to monetize the Tenderloin in a Call of Duty-style format. The depiction drew immediate criticism for turning homelessness and addiction into entertainment, while critics also objected to racist tropes in the portrayal of Black characters. Some social media users nevertheless praised the game. Biojout, who founded AI business platform NanoCorp in 2023, said he built Night Shift over one weekend with AI coding tools despite having no prior game-development experience, and claimed it had already earned $300 in advertising revenue.