Generative AI could give advertising its worst ever crisis of credibility

livemint.com:

Advertising has always walked a thin line between embellishment and fabrication. In the new age of generative artificial intelligence, the latter is becoming easier. Making an online ad no longer requires careful staging of well-lit photographs because now they can be made and enhanced in fantastical ways.

Consumers need to sharpen their wits as we move from unnaturally juicy burgers to depictions of people and food that aren’t physically plausible. An example is the bizarre pasta concoction that Instacart, a US-based grocery-delivery service, used in a recent marketing campaign. Instacart has now deleted the Frankenstein’s monster of food and recipes that don’t (or probably shouldn’t) exist, which included fare like “watermelon popsicles with chocolate chips." It appears to have been conjured with new image-generation tools.

But it was not alone. Restaurants that sell food exclusively through delivery apps like DoorDash and Grubhub have also used images of unidentifiable breaded objects on their pasta, according to 404 Media. Topping them was a recent Willy Wonka exhibition in Glasgow, Scotland, whose AI-generated posters suggested that ticket holders would stroll through a vivid world of ceiling-high lollipops and chocolate bars.

They instead entered a bleak, grey warehouse scattered with some cheap props. Generative AI has allowed for even more sinister marketing, something Olga Loiek found out the hard way last December. The 20-year-old student was dabbling in the art of being a YouTube influencer when she discovered dozens of video advertisements of her hawking candy on Chinese social media sites.