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A coffee shop owner used AI to make a menu poster. Then came the angry DMs

82 points · 316 comments · TMWNN

  1. HanShotFirst · · focus · HN ↗
    I've noticed a very sudden uptick in these AI designed signs and menus in my area. I fully understand why they are used by small business owners (fast and cheap), and I think getting angry at or threatening a business owner for using them is a huge overreaction.

    That said, my own aesthetic sense is very much turned off by them. It is hard for me to articulate why, but I can name four reasons:

    - The food never actually looks good, real, or delicious;

    - The information is presented in a haphazard way, with text randomly thrown all over the place;

    - There is really only one kind of "style" of these signs that I've seen, and it's sad to think that this style (or lack thereof) may become ubiquitous;

    - In a world where AI feels increasingly shoved down our throats, it is unnerving to so suddenly see its rise manifested in the physical world.

    1. sippingabonedry · · focus · HN ↗
      I have some bad news for you:

      • The pictures on cereal boxes aren't entirely real, either. They use school glue, not milk.

      • Your burger has never looked like the one on the menu (see Falling Down)

      • I've never eaten at a Chinese takeaway where the food looked like the light-up menu board, either.

      How has AI art made your food meaningfully less delicious?

      1. JumpCrisscross · · focus · HN ↗
        > How has AI art made your food meaningfully less delicious?

        If a menu has pictures, I expect the food to look like the picture. That said, this is really only a problem for the store in respect of returns. If nobody is returning the product because it didn't look as advertised, there probably isn't any harm being done.

        1. sippingabonedry · · focus · HN ↗
          > If a menu has pictures, I expect the food to look like the picture.

          Has food ever looked like the picture, though? I find this position unrealistic outside of an Amazon return excuse.

          1. jklinger410 · · focus · HN ↗
            > Has food ever looked like the picture, though? I find this position unrealistic outside of an Amazon return excuse.

            Yeah man it's unrealistic for restaurants to take pictures of the food they make and use that for the menu. Totally.

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