AI signs appear densely, users are haunted by their fake appearance
(Dan Tri) - Advertising billboards made by AI appear more and more on streets and social networks, making many people feel frustrated, even haunted.
Obsessed with colorful, similar designs
Recently, every time she steps out on the street and searches for restaurants, Thuy Quynh (22 years old) carries a vague fear called AI.
According to Quynh, since the beginning of the year until now, the frequency with which she has encountered signs of restaurants and cafes with colorful colors, "fake", stereotypical and visually overwhelming images designed by AI has become increasingly dense.
"I don't hate AI because I still use it a lot in studying and working. But every time I see AI signs, I feel uncomfortable and a bit creepy. I don't know what to call that feeling," Quynh shared.
For the young girl, what scares her is when signs created by machines gradually replace human-designed products.
"In the past, each shop often had its own style. Whether the design was bad or beautiful, it left an impression. Now, many signs seem to be made according to a template," Quynh said.
Just walking along any street with many shops, Quynh is inundated with a series of signs with bowls of vermicelli, bowls of spicy noodles or cups of milk tea filled with absurdly bright colors.
Quynh expressed her feelings: "The grains of rice and noodles are round and even, the food has a bright yellow color that is difficult to recognize, the image is filled with redundant details. The longer you look at it, the more it looks like plastic, somewhat strange, not creating an appetite."
Many AI signs, menus, and flyers do not create a sense of visual appeal but only make Quynh frustrated. The longer she looks at it, the more it looks like plastic (Screenshot).
Not to mention the situation she encountered when a food store on a delivery app used AI-generated images instead of taking real photos.
As a result, when receiving the order, the actual dish was very different from the illustration and what Quynh expected.
On the other hand, for store owners, AI is considered by many people to be a tool to help them save design investment costs, especially for those who are just starting out in business.
Ms. Thuy Linh (26 years old), owner of a juice shop in Hanoi, once considered AI an attractive option and used it to design signs and drink menus when she first opened the shop.
But all those expectations changed as soon as she posted an introduction with a picture of her shop on social networks.
Besides the questions and answers about ordering, a series of other comments focused on attacking the sign and menu made by AI.
For example, there are some bad criticisms like "making an AI sign looks unfriendly", "I will support it but I hope you redo the sign later", "If the shop has the budget, please make another sign, the water cup looks both fake and unattractive".
"I think as long as the image stands out, it's fine. I didn't expect there to be so many people who object to signs made with AI," Ms. Linh responded to the comments.
Therefore, she decided to replace the signs and menus with real images of the products designed by people themselves.
It can be seen that for many people, media products created by AI are facing many prejudices.
Just realizing the traces of AI, many people start to be cautious, thinking that the image is unsympathetic, lifeless and they are willing to skip the restaurant without actually experiencing it.
Going out, surfing the internet, you will see billboards and AI menus
Stories like Thuy Quynh's are no longer isolated cases. As noted by Dan Tri reporter, just walking around a few streets or surfing for a few minutes on social networks can accidentally come across signs, menus, and flyers created by AI.
From spicy noodle shops, rice shops, coffee shops, milk tea shops, bakeries, snack shops to restaurants, AI is gradually becoming a more familiar designer than ever.
With just a few lines of description, store owners can create dozens of image options without needing to know how to use graphic software or spend a large amount of money to hire a designer.
However, the popularity of machine-made products also makes advertising signs and menus increasingly similar.
As a result, most designs are often criticized for not following the brand's style, confusing layouts, oversaturated colors, unnatural food, inconsistent lighting and shadows, overuse of fonts, and characters with stiff expressions.
AI designs that are everywhere are often criticized for being stereotypical, with oversaturated colors, confusing layouts, unnatural food, inconsistent lighting and shadows, and overuse of fonts (Photo: Viet Anh).
Product images that seem to attract customers actually create a feeling of "fake perfection" that is uncomfortable for many people.
When such designs appear throughout the streets and on social networks, the debate continues to increase and shows no signs of cooling down.
Food quality is still the priority
Despite receiving disagreement from many people, not everyone thinks that using AI in restaurants is a bad thing.
As someone who often discovers new restaurants, Huyen Mai (22 years old) said she doesn't care too much about images created by AI or designed by humans.
"I care more about food. If the food is attractive, reasonably priced and well served, then signs or menus made with AI are not a problem," Mai emphasized.
According to her, AI is a tool to help small stores save costs in the early stages of business.
Mai shared: "Many startups are not qualified to hire professional designers or photographers. AI helps them have a more neat image, which is completely understandable."
Phuong Anh (24 years old) also believes that the most worrying thing is not AI, but the abuse of AI to create images that are different from the actual product.
"If AI is only used to make the presentation more beautiful without changing the actual image of the dish, there is nothing to object to. On the contrary, if it disappoints customers, it will be counterproductive," she asserted.
Phuong Anh suggests that if stores use AI, they should use real food images and then apply AI to design the background and add simple graphic details.
She also expressed her hope that people will have a more open view of AI design.
For Phuong Anh, AI helps many small businesses and the elderly create more eye-catching images than previous simple designs, so that is not worthy of criticism.
Some people also believe that the deciding factor for a restaurant's success is still the quality of the food, the honesty in promotion and the experience customers receive.