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So, your social media feed is being taken over by AI. If yours looks anything like ours, here’s what you’re seeing.
AI-Generated Celebrity Images
A few months ago when Macaulay Culkin got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, we saw plenty images shared on Facebook. However, most of what we saw were AI versions of the actual photographs from the event. Why? If we had to hazard a guess, maybe it’s because you have to pay a photographer to use their image, but if you ask an AI image generator to make a version based on the real photographs, you don’t have to pay them at all.
Impossible Food
So did that baker perfectly sculpt Mario and Luigi out of fondant and slap them atop a green pipe-shaped cake, complete with fondant mushrooms, Thwomps, Goombas, and Chain Chomps, or did someone get a little carried away with Midjourney?
Actually, nevermind the obviously impossible food—we’re seeing weird AI food pop up on platforms such as Instacart. And it looks so unappetizing.
Fake Romantic Partners
Once upon a time, the images used by the cute singles local to our area were no doubt stolen from some real person who had no idea. Now, they’re AI-generated fake people. Is that progress? Kind of? Maybe? The better question is why we’re still getting romance scam messages on Facebook. It’s 2024.
Strange Alternative History
If we want to learn about Vikings, why would we go to a book or documentary when we can have an alternative history page on Facebook give us a few paragraphs of made-up (probably written by ChatGPT) information along with a picture of a woad-covered bodybuilder with a behorned helmet and World of Warcraft sized battle axe? Seriously, what is it with all the AI images of historical figures paired with dubious factoids? Is it because Julius Caesar had a famously poor selfie game that we’re stuck with seeing him rendered by Midjourney?
Bigfoot, UFOs, & Other Conspiracy Things
Kids today. Back in our day, we had to settle for blurry pictures of a kinda-furry thing when we wanted to see Bigfoot. Now every time a weirdo wants to try and show the world that they met Bigfoot, Nessie, a UFO, or another star of Unexplained Mysteries, they can just slap it together with AI and call it a day.
Bizarre Fan Pages
Gordon Ramsay is pretty active on social media. But we’re pretty sure he’s never made a tater tot waffle breakfast sandwich. That’s because, on closer inspection, said recipe (along with an AI-generated image complete with gravity-defying egg yolk drip) was posted to “Gordon Ramsay ❤️.” If you want to imply you’re someone else on social, apparently all you have to do is stick an emoji after the name. Then you can post all the AI-generated recipes you want!
