After raising eyebrows with AI-generated food images that bordered on culinary horror, Instacart is now pulling these pics from its platform. The grocery delivery giant faced ridicule for images where chickens had extra limbs and hot dogs morphed into tomatoes, sparking a wave of disbelief and laughter across the internet.
After Business Insider spotlighted Instacart's AI faux pas, the company began erasing these AI-generated anomalies. Subreddit users had been compiling these culinary disasters, featuring conjoined chickens and tomato-textured hot dogs, since early January 2024.
Instacart replaced some of the AI-generated disasters with stock photos. For example, a bizarre broccoli image, attempting to add notched crowns to stems, was swapped for a generic cooked broccoli picture. However, some AI-generated oddities remain live.
Despite Instacart's claim of optimizing user experience, the unsettling images highlight the challenges of employing generative AI in food imagery. These AI endeavors often resulted in visuals that were more puzzling than appetizing.
Instacart is not alone in experimenting with AI for imagery. Other platforms, like Uber Eats, have also dabbled in AI-generated photos, with mixed results. The trend underscores the tech's growing role in content creation, despite its imperfections.
A survey from June 2023 revealed that while consumers find AI-generated images aesthetically pleasing, they remain skeptical about their authenticity. This skepticism is likely to persist as AI continues to blur the lines between real and generated content.
❓Would you mind to see AI generated photos for your food delivery items?
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