Here’s something new you might see on Google Maps. This morning, I was looking at photos for City Bagels in San Jose, to get an idea of what their bagels look like before heading there. Mixed in with what look like regular photos from customers are many others credited to “Storefront by DoorDash”.
Ignoring the question of why someone would upload a photo of a restaurant’s flavored milk selection, It’s easy to tell that the Nesquik “photo” is AI-generated, because the details in words are all messed up (classic DALL·E artifacts). But what about this one, uploaded by the same account?
It looks pretty realistic, but only because it doesn’t have the telltale signs of AI. And, come to think of it, is looking more like a professional food shot than anything. I’m guessing that City Bagels doesn’t feel the need to pay a photographer to shoot their offerings (they’ve been around a long time, and have 4.5 stars on Google Maps).
I can only see this becoming more prevalent online, and of course the quality of the generated images will soon make it very difficult to tell them from reality. For now, we’re in a time when it’s fairly easy to spot the fakes. And Copilot Designer isn’t quite there yet 😂:
