A shocking post to the r/Singapore subreddit revealed one customer's anger as they tried to order food.
"AI is getting out of hand," the customer wrote in the post. "I don't care if your photos suck, at least I know what I'm ordering."
The photos, taken from the food delivery website Grab, were generated by artificial intelligence, making the food look nearly unidentifiable. Most surprising is the first image, in which it is impossible to identify what food the eatery is selling.
The prominence of AI-generated images may seem harmless. However, they're deceptive even in the best of times and actively confusing or unhelpful in many instances.
Recent studies have also revealed that AI images are the most energy-intensive of all AI-based tasks, the National Centre for AI revealed. A study found that 1,000 images produce "roughly as much carbon dioxide as driving 4.1 miles in an average gasoline-powered car."
Researchers are concerned that the energy-intensive nature of AI will only grow in the coming years. While the energy required for AI in data centers currently only demands less than one-fifth of the overall energy used worldwide, per the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the International Energy Agency projects that global electricity consumption from data centers could double by 2030.
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Other resource-depleting factors result from the prominence of AI. Data centers also use vast amounts of water, at an average of 550,000 gallons of water daily.
Water and energy depletion from nonrenewable sources contribute to planet-harming pollution and the looming threat of water scarcity around the world. As technology companies grow, researchers are worried about the environmental impact that comes with them.
Even on a small scale, such as this eatery using AI-generated images on their menu, the environmental impact is substantial. The United Nations Environment Programme explained that just one request made to ChatGPT consumes 10 times the electricity of a Google search.
The UN believes the solution to the massive amount of resource depletion from AI comes from regulation. It encourages tech companies to use clean energy. On an individual level, the original poster put it best: Even just a photo of the food as it is would be better than the AI-generated mystery.
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Never 👎 Redditors were in agreement.
"AI generated images for anything is nonsense but especially for food," wrote one. "I want to at least know what the thing I'm about to put in my mouth looks like."
Another put it succinctly: "Should be illegal."
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