Chip muffin? Bacon and egg soda? How Just Eat's AI struggled to depict Britain's regional dishes
Just Eat has apologized and paused its use of AI-generated food images after automated tools created bizarre concoctions like cola with floating bacon and eggs, and chips baked into muffins. The mishap highlighted the limitations of current generative AI when interpreting specific regional culinary terms out of context.
Why it matters
It serves as a cautionary tale for commercial enterprises rushing to deploy generative AI for complex creative or localization tasks.
Image caption, A chip muffin and bacon and egg soda - menu items well known in parts of the UK, but not to the AI which made this
Just Eat has apologised after it was ridiculed online over a series of mistakes with AI-generated pictures for some of its restaurants' food items.
The online food delivery platform had been testing out the tech to showcase food which didn't have images yet - but not all turned out as planned.
Instead the AI invented several bizarre concoctions, from bacon and eggs floating in a glass of cola - a confusion between "soda" and "soda bread" - to chips poking out of muffins.
A Just Eat spokesperson said the firm was "in the process of removing" the incorrect images, and would stop making more until the AI was further developed.
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