Restaurants have been serving up fake food ads for decades—AI slop is just the latest special

New York City has become littered with AI food ads, as revealed by a viral post featuring peculiar sidewalk signs outside delis and cafés. These ads showcase croissant sandwiches with perfectly layered croissants, affogatos with random holes, and chopped-cheese heroes with cheese melting uniformly over every piece of meat. Generative AI provides an affordable and effortless alternative to professional food photography for small businesses, allowing them to create striking images of their offerings without the need for costly equipment or professional photographers.

However, the backlash to AI food ads raises a perplexing paradox. Some customers prefer an imperfect image of a meal that truly existed over a flawlessly polished one that did not. This distinction becomes increasingly relevant when AI food appears to be deceptive, as it can create an unrealistically photorealistic meal that never existed on a plate.

Restaurants have long used deceptive advertising techniques in food ads, but generative AI adds an extra layer of complexity to the issue. Advertising agencies must now grapple with the challenge of determining how much difference there can be between the food in the ad and the food on the plate before it becomes deceptive.

The closer one examines an AI ad, the less it resembles a genuine meal, and the more it triggers trypophobia—the fear of a pattern of holes. The images have earned their own unappetizing nickname: food slop. Despite the backlash, the business case for AI slop remains clear for restaurants. Professional-looking food advertising no longer requires professional food photography.

AJ and Lyndsey Lozano, the owners of Grind & Unwind in San Francisco's Haight Street, used AI-generated images of their food while opening the restaurant and caring for three young children. The internet did not take kindly to the AI images, with one Reddit post garnering over 670 upvotes and commenters comparing the focaccia to a loofah and a lung.

The legality of AI slop remains a gray area. Advertisers can use images that are not real as long as they do not mislead consumers about what they are buying. However, if an image makes a claim about the composition or quality of the food, it could be considered deceptive. Libby O’Neill, a partner and deputy chair at Loeb & Loeb LLP, advises that companies should sell the product they depict and depict the product they sell.