#food-photography · Cascadity

TThe Table #ai-slop #delivery-apps #food-photography #generative-ai #restaurants

Just Eat pauses AI menu photos after cola with floating eggs; Chicago diners push back on AI food signs

Two takes on the same problem: when the picture of your dinner was never a photo.

Just Eat has paused an AI tool that generated menu images for restaurants on its UK platform after it produced surreal results, Restaurant Online reports: fried eggs and sausages floating in cola for a "breakfast soda", a tiny burger inside a sauce pot, cheese-filled sushi and wine glasses holding watermelon. The tool was meant to help small independents add pictures without paying for photography. "We're sorry for any inaccurate images," a spokesperson said; affected images were removed.

In Chicago, the Tribune finds AI-generated food photos spreading across restaurant menu boards and signs, with burgers, burritos and shrimp that look plainly synthetic. Jay Goldberg of Chicago Culinary Kitchen in Palatine told the paper AI is fine for flyers, "but the second you're going to just bait and switch me with your food, I don't trust you as a business."

Read it at the source

Restaurant OnlineJust Eat apologises for surreal AI generated food images Independent ↗ Chicago Tribune'Off-putting' or 'a fine tool'? AI slop on restaurant signage is becoming rampant and repugnant. Independent ↗

Cascadic Analysis 2

UndertowRole underspecification / the Doorman Problem

What hidden risk could pull against this, even if the news is good?

The tool was meant to spare small restaurants the cost of a photographer. A photographer brings judgment the tool lacked: a "breakfast soda" is a drink, not eggs and sausages floating in cola. The part of the job that never needed writing down was the part that went missing.

UndertowDelayed Consequence / False Success Problem

What hidden risk could pull against this, even if the news is good?

The cola with floating eggs was caught because it was absurd. A generated photo that looks plausible but shows a bigger portion or different ingredients than the kitchen serves would pass a glance, and the cost would show up later as the lost trust the Chicago diner describes as "bait and switch."

Rabbit Holes 1

AI slop

After exploring 'Off-putting' or 'a fine tool'? AI slop on restaurant signage is becoming rampant and repugnant., the term itself has a history; see AI slop.

Wikipedia defines 'AI slop' as low-effort generative-AI content produced in volume, often to earn money or to deceive.

Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min

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