Why does every small business in my town keep using those AI generated photos that look clearly fake?

I saw three local coffee shops in Portland last week post those weird hands with extra fingers on Instagram and it made me wonder are they really saving that much time or just hurting their brand, has anyone else noticed this hurting engagement?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathan1008d ago

Did you catch that article about how people can spot AI images in under a second now? I read some study that said our brains are wired to notice those little weird details like the hands or the lighting being off. It makes sense why engagement drops when people see those fake photos, it breaks the trust. I'd rather see a grainy phone picture of a real donut than something that looks like it came from a dream sequence.

davidkim9d ago

Noticed the same thing with a bakery near me, but actually I think the photos are just from a stock photo site not even AI half the time lol. The extra fingers thing is definitely AI though, that's a dead giveaway. But honestly a lot of small business owners just grab whatever photo they find on Google images or a cheap stock site and call it a day. It probably does hurt engagement though because customers notice and it feels lazy. I'd rather see a blurry phone pic of their actual pastries than some fake looking thing with weird hands in the background.