Just Eat's AI turns bacon and egg soda into a fizzy drink as regional dish images go wrong

Just Eat has apologised after AI-generated images of regional dishes went badly wrong on its platform, drawing ridicule online.

The delivery firm was testing the technology to showcase food that had no photos yet, but the results were not what anyone ordered. A bacon and egg soda from a Belfast cafe became a glass of fizzy cola with a cooked egg and bacon floating in it - a mix-up between "soda" and "soda bread". Chips appeared poking out of muffins, a cheese roll turned into slabs of cheese wrapped like sushi, and a misspelt "plain" garlic bread came out shaped like an aeroplane.

A Just Eat spokesperson said the company was "in the process of removing" the incorrect images and would pause generating more until the AI was further developed. The firm said it works with tens of thousands of small restaurants on food imagery, including funding professional photographers, and that as with any new technology, "it isn't always quite right the first time".

AI images on the app carry a label saying so. Some social media users found the pictures hilarious, while others questioned why customers would want AI versions at all. "I want to see what the dish actually looks like," one Instagram user wrote, adding that "perfect" AI images just lead to disappointment.