What are your thoughts on takeaways using AI for food photos?
Posted by MatteBlackRide@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 87 comments
Came across this place near me today that has seemingly ran it's entire menu through chatgpt.. I think it'd be fine if it was at least realistic, but come on! I wonder if this would be classed in some way as false advertising?
sunheadeddeity@reddit
I won't trust any business or event that uses AI for promotion. Can't be bothered to write a quick description for your ebay listing? Not buying. Cannot photograph your own food? Not buying. Won't pay an artist to throw a poster together? Not going.
gerrineer@reddit
Were the peas upside down?
LetAfraid8933@reddit
I mean most places used stock photos anyway, not like every restaurant was taking photos of their dishes
AdministrativeLaugh2@reddit
I hate scrolling through Just Eat and seeing places use the same stock photos that are clearly supplied by JE. It’s clear misrepresentation
Evening-Tomatillo-47@reddit
To be fair a burger is a burger. How much different are they going to look? Unless there's something specific about it there's not going to be much difference anyway, plus who expects their food to look exactly like the picture?
AdministrativeLaugh2@reddit
I agree on burgers but pizza can look wildly different at different places. One of the popular JE stock images is of restaurant-style pizzas that takeaways never do, so it’s frustrating to see that picture but then receive something lathered in cheese with tiny chunks of meat spread on it
Evening-Tomatillo-47@reddit
Fair point, I just never expect it to look like that. Heck most of them don't even have a description, why would I order a Daves Special Burger if I know nothing about it?
Watchkeys@reddit
Most places like where? I don't think this is true at all, what are you basing it on?
toby1jabroni@reddit
Pretty much every restaurant or take away that has pictures of “their” food on the menu or display.
Watchkeys@reddit
Right. Where did you get that information from? Did you go and look in the takeaway window round the corner and that's your evidence?
MassiveLefticool@reddit
Watchkeys finding out the truth: "boss man wouldn't do that"
Watchkeys@reddit
haha yeah, as if Reddit posts can be taken as 'truth'! Good point.
toby1jabroni@reddit
Wait… you think menus with photos are of food made in that restaurant?
Watchkeys@reddit
No. I don't think it's 'most' places though. Most places are chains, who can afford to have photos taken of their own product and used in all of their samey samey outlets. I genuinely don't think that McDonalds, Taco Bell, Burger King etc are taking stock images from the internet/using AI to advertise on Deliveroo.
MassiveLefticool@reddit
Mate, they practically all use stock images, next you're going to tell me the barbershop close to your house really had David Beckham pose for that picture they have in their window
Watchkeys@reddit
lol I'm not your 'mate'.
You're just saying the same thing louder. I'm asking what you're basing it on, not to repeat it, little buddy.
FornyHucker22@reddit
I’m not your buddy guy!
Watchkeys@reddit
Yeah I know. I was poking fun.
BowiesFixedPupil@reddit
All major fast food retailers such as BK, McDs, KFC, Subway etc all use fake images for their food I believe, it's always the way it was with staged photos and ingredients swapped for something better looking (fake tomatoes etc).
Probably not the case for local stores but burgers not looking like their images is long standing.
Watchkeys@reddit
You believe? Ah ok. Well, that's authoritative.
BowiesFixedPupil@reddit
It was the case historically, I'm just not fully clued up on how things work today, so I won't claim it as fact.
The person you responded to likely knows that this was common practice at some point.
Watchkeys@reddit
Think we're talking about now. I mean historically they used to put chalk in bread to bulk it up, but it's not so relevant to this discussion right?
Pick_Up_Autist@reddit
It's very much the case for local independent places, Just Eat/Uber eats etc have stock photos to choose from if the business doesn't want to upload their own.
Watchkeys@reddit
Do they? Nice to see someone with some actual information.
tdrules@reddit
Exactly, the best Chinese in my area has the worst constructed menu ever created.
Honestly flashy places can put me off
Bad_UsernameJoke94@reddit
There's a chicken shop near me with a really badic menu layout, but absolutely great food.
As long as I can see the item name and price, that's all I want. I hate tons of pictures, fancy text, etc.
SamPizza89@reddit
Definitely false advertising to me! However, McDonalds etc have been doing the same for years with their TV ads without using AI - their products look incredible on TV, they look gross af when you get them at 3 am after a night out xD
carl84@reddit
Apparently the ASA are fighting fire with fire and have their own AI tool that scans takeaway ads and flags any that obviously materially misrepresent their offerings. How effective this is I have no idea
Useless_or_inept@reddit
Yes, let's go back to the good old days when they used a stock photo and MS Paint
Misleading menus are a pain in the arse, even worse is the AI-generated blurb about sizzling crunchy joy; but there was never a golden age where Ahmed hired a pro photographer, and set up one of his own kebabs authentically on the counter for a 100% accurate photo, and wrote his own honest description of the kebab's pluses and minuses.
jamnut@reddit
Yeah I'm sure all the kebabberies around me have the exact same photo of a Donner on their menu. I won't ever make my decision based off the photo used. Not much decision to make TBF, large Donner
carl84@reddit
Chilli and garlic sauce? Salad?
Urist_Macnme@reddit
Advertising standards do not care if you took the photo yourself, used photoshop, or generated the image with AI. They care whether the picture matches what the consumer believes they are buying.
AirconGuyUK@reddit
I think it's fine in regards to adding a background of ambiance, but the prompt should be saying to not touch the look of the food beyond lighting.
vrrtvrrt@reddit
Pretty much any takeaway with photos in their menus has images that are a million miles from reality. That has been the case as long as I’ve been around. Same food adverts. AI images are just more of the same.
CassetteLine@reddit
I’ll go somewhere else.
I’m generally quite pro AI, but on a menu I want to see the actual food. If they’ve used AI for it I’ve got zero confidence that the food isn’t trash.
I’ll close the menu as soon as I see the AI image.
mcrrob@reddit
1 near me changed names / owners and bought a load of fake Google reviews. All reviews were new accounts and had all reviewed the same couple of places in Manchester/new Delhi. Blocked me when I called them out.
Urist_Macnme@reddit
The restaurant owners are liable for falsely advertising their goods.
You are eligible for a refund of the goods to not accurately match the product advertised.
xpltvdeleted@reddit
It's a lie. Without question
oli_ramsay@reddit
Lazy trash
skibbin@reddit
Big nope from me. If they have to lie about what the food looks like it's got to be shit.
sheepandlambs@reddit
While I don't disagree, they've been using stock photos for years, and that's just as dishonest.
JustAnotherFEDev@reddit
Everywhere has deceived us with food images, forever, though.
Images air brushed, Big Macs plumped up, pizzas with glue in the cheese for the cheese pull, they've done it all.
Marketers gonna deceive, this is just a new tool to deceive us with, really
skibbin@reddit
Gotta draw the line somewhere. This isn't like the girl on the dating app wearing makeup, this is her being AI
Rather than purely the dishonesty I think being low effort enough to use AI pictures tells me they will be equally low effort with the food and probably the hygiene too
JustAnotherFEDev@reddit
I'm not disagreeing with you, mate. Just highlighting that they've always deceived us, with one tactic or another
skibbin@reddit
Didn't mean to suggest you were, I'm just trying to clarify why I begrudgingly tolerate doctored images, but have zero tolerance for AI
JustAnotherFEDev@reddit
Yeah "AI" is arse, even the very mention of it makes my teeth itch.
toby1jabroni@reddit
Agreed, and it should also be for stock photos even if no AI was used at all.
deathangel539@reddit
Completely against AI art and most of AI in general
It’s not really any different than them using stock photos that were cleverly crafted by someone using tools to make food look very presentable. I just wish they’d literally make a meal, take a pic and be done with it. Wouldn’t care if it looks like shit, if it tastes good that’s the important part
Enough_Response@reddit
illegal
TunedOutPlugDin@reddit
Have you reported McDonalds yet ?
VarangianWRLD@reddit
As long as they have a fair redund policy if my expectations aren't met
Moppo_@reddit
I would assume the actual food looks like shit.
OkGrapefruit7174@reddit
Big nope, I don’t think anyone with a semi functioning brain would think lemme order from there
Slow-Improvement-724@reddit
I don't like it, but honestly this is something that should have come up towards the beginning of things like Just Eat/Uber Eats, from an "ai made it" POV to how things currently work, its not really much different than using one of the other unrealistic placeholders that get thrown on here.
the wider "should really be a photo of their product" is something id say needs to be pushed though.
BeautyAndTheDekes@reddit
Shows me who to avoid. I get that a takeaway probably isn’t serving something that consistently looks identical every order, nor do they likely have the budget for a professional photographer, but I’d far rather poor quality photos snapped on a phone of examples of the actual item than AI rubbish.
For those interested, look up Japanese food packaging. Really interesting stuff.
GhostRiders@reddit
You do realise that pretty much every company that sells food since the invention of print and visual media either doesn't use real food or alters the imagine in some way?
Do you think those picutres that McDonalds uses on their menu is real?
Why are suddenly bothered now?
MindProfessional9603@reddit
So so true! In advertising, film, and more people have always been using tricks to make food look 'picture perfect'
Commercial-Pear-543@reddit
I don’t think it’s fine in any circumstance.
I want to see what the food I am ordering is going to look like. Any picture that is not of that food is fake advertising.
I’d rather they didn’t put any photos.
MatteBlackRide@reddit (OP)
One of my favourites is the rabbit dropping patties seen here..
Similar-Roll-2144@reddit
My biggest pet peeve with this isn't even fast food places...it's recipes that use AI photos. i made a dessert recently and following the recipe it looked nothing like the photo with the recipe, re read it a few times thinking I'd massively ballsed up somewhere but no the photo was just not correct!
BillyJoeDubuluw@reddit
I rarely order takeaways, so it’s a bit of a non-issue for me, but I don’t think it’s a “new trend” for cheap food places to use ultimately artificial photos, this happened well before AI.
And_Justice@reddit
No different to showing real photos that aren't of their food
Rechamber@reddit
False advertising, I'd steer clear.
ThatChap@reddit
I prefer good old honest upside down peas
HarB_Games@reddit
Bring back upside down peas!
rinkydinkmink@reddit
Since when were takeaway food photos ever realistic in the first place?
UniquePotato@reddit
Why bother at all, I know what a cheeseburger looks like.
Emergency_Mistake_44@reddit
Pretty much every takeaway is using stock photos anyway rather than taking photos of the dishes themselves so other than this being another "AI is bad!!" situation, I don't really see much difference.
Ultimately, it's to give you an idea of what each product is and if it comes out looking similar who cares? Big name places like McDonald's take their own photos, dress the burgers up with special tricks and effects to make it look more appealing and it still never comes out resembling the photo so what's the difference really?
I have no issue with local takeaways using AI to simply write a menu either as long as it makes sense and is accurate to whatever they're selling. Personally, I'd say just write the damn thing yourself but people aren't going to not use technology available to them.
KingStevoI@reddit
I never trust fast food restraunts that include pictures, they're often hiding the fact that they're shit.
rabid-fox@reddit
If its edited with ai i couldn't care less. If the entire picture is fabricated not a fan but then most non-ai food pictures from chains are fake too
abstract_groove@reddit
I think it's great - a really useful use of technology to make it clear what places to avoid like the fucking plague.
barejokez@reddit
had me in the first half...
Weekly_Frosting_5868@reddit
I wouldn't order from takeaways that use AI generated food photos, in the same way I don't order from those that use blatant stock photos
Asleep-Software-4160@reddit
They should use a picture emblematic of what the food looks like after an hour in the delivery driver's footwell.
Prestigious_Emu6039@reddit
It will soon become so widespread and of such convincing quality that we will no longer be able to make any distinction between real and digitally created.
Note that almost all real photos taken nowadays are digitally altered in some small way by the camera anyway, so distinctions between reality and fake are already blurred.
The more interesting question for me is after we are fully immersed in this world of fakery, how will that impact in how we live and consume when we are no longer able to make distinctions between real and invented.
Talking_Gibberish@reddit
A local takeaway opened near me and their menu showed a blatant ai image of a spread of food and a number scribbled put with a hand written number next to it. Immediately thought the food must be shit but several people commented saying it was lovely 🤷♂️
JamieEC@reddit
I would not go somewhere if they did this
user-captain@reddit
Makes a change from using people with small hands to hold burgers
seriousrikk@reddit
I dislike places using stock photos, so AI is a big fat nope from me.
Better with no images at all.
Upper_Paramedic_2043@reddit
When did menu photos ever look like the real thing? Fast food chains would get their burgers artfully arranged before taking the photos and they never looked like the lopsided mess you found when opening the box. I’m talking about you McDonalds
the01li3@reddit
Go for it, images on these are never realistic anyway, whens the last time you got a big mac that actually looked like that?
Id be down for everyone needing to use actual food rather then just "dont use AI" all those pics with like cornflour and glue or some shit as mayo... just show me what ill be getting
YarnPenguin@reddit
If they can't even stage it to look nice enough to buy in real life, I'm not buying it
VerbingNoun413@reddit
10 years ago they were using stock images. Is that any different?
Headlight-Highlight@reddit
I have seen people compare menu and real food many times over the years, this predates AI... I had a Big Mac the other day (first time in years) the top layer of the bun was empty, both burgers were on the bottom half. stuck together with cheese, one pathetic bit of lettuce... Won't be having another... Likely ever.
Lunaspoona@reddit
Doesn't bother me that much. Its nothing new really. I work for a big chain delivery company and knew someone who made the food for pics. They did use real food but it was heavily staged and edited. None of the 'real' ones that we make every day look anything like it.
It was well known that other companies used fake products, staging and editing to promote their products as well. AI was always going to be the next step and save on those costs the bigger companies use for marketing.
Noobeater1@reddit
I just don't care, the food never looks like the pictures anyway
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