Check Out These Strangely Surreal AI-Generated Food Commercials
Over the past year, the conversation surrounding artificial intelligence’s place in the creative space has become a hot-button topic. From AI-generated text and search results, to eerily realistic photo and video (albeit with a touch of surreality), AI is becoming a common tool for creation. Naturally, as an all-encompassing technology, there’s debate over the ethics of its use — it’s currently an unregulated wild wild West. One pro is the amazing, imaginative art it makes, yet a huge con is the way in which AI sources references, which results in artists being uncredited.
In time, the structures for how AI should be used ethically will develop, but until then, we can still enjoy early iterations of AI-generated content. The food industry has also begun navigating the unchecked waters of artificial intelligence. From apps that let restaurants create AI-generated menu images, to the latest trend of AI-generated television commercials.
While they haven’t become widespread yet, what’s interesting about them is that they strike a fine chord between photorealism and surrealism. Below are three such commercials that are eerily life-like.
BEANS ARE BACK
This odd Wes Anderson-style commercial humorously revolves around a love for beans. You can tell by the mouth movement that the subjects are obviously AI-generated, while a human obviously came up with the topic of farting.
PEPPERONI HUG SPOT
Definitely wasted 3 hours of my life making this today… Everything is AI from the VO to the video and images. Assembled in After Effects.
by u/PizzaLater in midjourney
A clever redditor spent three hours making this throwback-style pizza commercial. Clearly inspired by Pizza Hut, the AI-generated an advertisement for a restaurant called Pepperoni Hug Spot. At a glance you might actually believe it to be real, until the guy with a burning pizza for a forearm appears.
BEER COMMERCIAL
AI generated beer commercial pic.twitter.com/AzNMGQIKo2
— OnlyBangers.eth (@OnlyBangersEth) April 30, 2023
This party featured in this AI-generated commercial looks like one you wouldn’t wanna miss. At least it seems that way until bottles, faces, and forms start warping into abnormal shapes and fingers start multiplying. The ghostly gathering is made more disturbing by the classic 90s song ‘All Star’ by Smash Mouth.
No doubt we’re going to see a lot more brands making AI-generated promotional content. While still in its oddball infancy, the technology is simply too promising and will only improve. For creators, it presents both a gateway to more artistic bandwidth and a potential copyright problem. With that said, artificial intelligence will be an awesome tool once we’re able to establish protections for artists.
