"Don't just eat slop – eat AI slop!" Just Eat pauses roll out of generative AI photos after some hilarious results, but they still seem keen to eliminate real food photography

Just Eat, a leading food delivery company, has temporarily halted its experiment with generative AI photo creation due to the technology's inability to accurately interpret menu items (Source). The issue arose as customers began sharing humorous results from the AI-generated images (Source). The company's intention was to allow restaurants to display their menus with AI-generated images when they lacked their own food photographs (Source).

However, the AI's creativity had a few amusing mishaps, such as depicting a jacket potato as a winter jacket, a tiger prawn bowl with swimming tigers, and bacon and egg soda bread as a soda drink with floating ingredients (Source).

One possible reason for the AI's misinterpretations may have been its failure to recognize that "soda" in the context of a bread type referred to an Irish bread, rather than a fizzy drink (Source). Another issue stemmed from errors in client menu submissions, like a misspelled "plain" as "plane" on a garlic bread menu, resulting in AI-generated garlic bread that looked like a shaped piece of bread (Source).

These errors highlight the concerns that remain for photographers and consumers alike, as Just Eat has paused the AI feature and apologized for the embarrassing results (Source). The incident underscores the current need for human photographers, or at least human oversight, to ensure accurate food representation in delivery services (Source).

Ultimately, the company's decision to suspend the AI feature stemmed from the technology's failure to meet expectations, prompting restaurants to revert to supplying photos once again (Source).