The Unique Horrors of A.I. Food Slop

An essay featured in The New Yorker's Infinite Scroll discusses the increasing use of A.I.-created food images in the marketing of restaurants, examining the evolution of food photography from Roland Barthes' 1957 critique to the Food Network's 'food porn' phenomenon. The writer contends that A.I. imagery, often dismissed as 'slop,' misrepresents the essence of food, triggering feelings of disgust akin to trypophobia. Establishments from Minneapolis to Hexentanzplatz are employing A.I. for their menus, particularly in budget-friendly fast-casual environments. Notable chefs like Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Ben Triola utilize ChatGPT for menu enhancement, facing criticism for simplifying cooking to mere calculations. The piece contrasts these images with traditional food photography, asserting they fail to evoke appetite and signify poor-quality mass production. Critics Richard Magee and Marcus Samuelsson emphasize the absence of authenticity in machine-generated culinary visuals.