Hello Home Ericanomics Readers!
It has been far too long since I hit the pages of my blog, but something has come up and I HAVE to write about it. No doubt, you have heard about AI (artificial intelligence) and how it is reshaping our worlds online. As an avid "foodie", I have been frustrated with the influx of weird, AI based, recipe and food pages as I scroll through Facebook. I am guessing you've probably scrolled past many an AI image and didn't even realize it. Some of you may have even turned to ChatGPT for a recipe, but the truth is, it's having a negative impact on the foodie network.
Remember hearing about how all the food in advertisements wasn't really food? Like, the perfect burger on the fast food restaurant was made up of fake stuff used in food modeling? That foam on the beer-soap suds. Glue in milk and engine oil on pancakes are just a few tricks of the trade to help food hold up under the bright lights and cameras. However, all of that seems silly now that AI can make an image of food that looks perfect and "nearly" realistic.
I'm not the only one in the food webpage/blog industry talking about this! According to an article on Pretty Focused, AI is definitely a hot topic. When to use AI food images is a huge decision and comes down to trust. In a study by Food Quality and Preference, people were pretty darned good at spotting the AI food images. Not surprising considering we have all had a long standing relationship with...well...real food! You can check out the images used in this study reviewed by News Medical.
I have seen multiple recipes and food images pop up in recent times. I will not call out any by name, but I highly suspect some of the cupcakes that I've seen with teeth marks in the cupcake paper (yum) are AI generated. For those of you who don't know, AI can mess up sometimes and if you don't believe me, count the number of fingers on people in AI images.
For amateurs like me, without a degree or real experience in photography, it can be hard to compete with AI food images. I guess I will just have to allow my food images to speak for themselves in terms of taste and customer satisfaction! I feel bad for people who try and fail to recreate the perfection in some of these images. It can be tough for someone just starting out to feel like they need to live up to unrealistic standards. For now, you'll be certain that all of the images on Home Ericanomics are my own or from a reputable sources!
Interested in learning more? Do a quick Google search for AI food or try creating your own on Canva or Chat GPT. You'll find that AI food has a lot more shadow and depth and for some reason, everything seems to be a lot more drippy and oozing. Don't ask why...And by the way-see if you can guess if the cupcake image at the top of the blog is real or AI generated! I'll reveal the answer on my Facebook page!
Thanks for reading! See you again soon!
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