Delis are going viral for horrifying AI-slop menus. I called one to try to understand why they did it.
Restaurants and delis are increasingly using AI-generated imagery for menus, often resulting in bizarre or 'horrifying' depictions of food. Business owners claim these are temporary placeholders while they wait for professional photography.
Why it matters
This trend illustrates the growing, sometimes clumsy, integration of generative AI into small business operations and the resulting consumer backlash.
A menu of AI-generated sandwiches in Chicago. Chris Murphy Delis and other restaurants are using AI to make menus. The results are often horrifyingly unsettling, like perfectly round shrimp. I asked one deli in Chicago why they used AI for their menu — and they had a reasonable answer. Chris Murphy said he was on his lunch break from his job as a server at a restaurant in downtown Chicago when he walked to the nearby Chi-Town Deli to buy a sandwich. As he scanned the menu, he noticed something unsettling: All of the images were actually AI-generated monstrosities. AI has tragically struck my local deli.
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