this post was submitted on 24 May 2026
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[–] HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org 202 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'd think AI imagery is uniquely toxic for product marketing because it reads as an admission the product is worse than the picture.

We know you'll pick the most flattering angle, and the one perfectly formed unit out of 500, with a photo of a real shirt. It's the upper bound on reality, but it's still reality. If you have to hallucinate instead, you probably can't even make that cherry-picked example look good.

[–] Tja@programming.dev 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's simpler than that. AI is faster and cheaper.

[–] petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 46 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

And it tells me nothing. I can't tell how a shirt is going to lay over the body if the image is fake.

Faster. Cheaper. Stupider. And possibly to obscure something.

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[–] WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today 133 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

Gen X here, and I probably can't tell without trying harder than I care to. Why "probably?" Because I've always despised marketing because it's all lies of heavy exaggeration, implication without actually claiming, and completely unrelated crap that somehow entices dumbasses to buy it (e.g. scantily clad models used to sell cars, tech, etc.).

I block every ad I can everywhere I might encounter them - and when I can't? The mute button works wonders. The harder they try to sell me, the more full of shit I know they are. I don't like being tracked, but that's practically an afterthought compared to the absolute disdain I have for marketing & the amount of bullshit I have to filter in order to glean the slightest bit of actually useful and believable info from an ad.

This sorry world seems to be run almost entirely on bullshit, and who can sling it most effectively. I look at the current White House resident as the culmination of all that is wrong in a world built on lies - lies made not only acceptable, but normal and expected all in the name of "marketing."

Fuck capitalism and the manipulative, greedy, power-tripping assholes that use "marketing" to steal money by convincing people their lives will be so much better with widget Y when they told us just last year that widget X would do the same.

No, I probably can't tell real from AI as easily as the younger set, but that's because I don't care to look at either one. It's all just an endless push to separate me from the pittance of funds I have left over after funneling the bulk of the few funds I've managed to acquire from one rich asshole's pocket to another - never staying in my account long enough to even earn a penny of interest.

This is such a Gen X response and that is a compliment

[–] binarytobis@lemmy.world 21 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Same. I feel like I didn’t build a natural resistance to AI images because I so thoroughly cut out ad sources and rarely see them.

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[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Anyone else stopped considering dominos to be a food just because of how desperate their ads seem?

[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

I stopped considering them a food because their pizza is nasty.

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[–] Redvenom@retrolemmy.com 90 points 2 weeks ago

whenever I see a company using AI art for their campaigns, I automatically ignore that company

[–] Wilco@lemmy.zip 78 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

I can confirm, my teens hate AI and are experts at spotting it. They will dissuade me from buying anything that advertises with AI.

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[–] wieson@feddit.org 44 points 2 weeks ago

The "not fully" makes me happy

My 6 year old habitually asks me "is this AI or just Photoshop?".

[–] LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world 36 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

AI has always stuck out to me, but recently it has started becoming even more blatantly obvious. I experienced my first bout of severe derealization from a PTSD trigger the other day and now that I'm out of it, all AI images look just as wrong as the whole world did when I was derealizing. Like the AI stands out even more now that I spent a few days with a severely altered perception of the world and was questioning what was real or not. Everything is back to normal except AI. AI looks even worse now. It is taking some getting used to lol.

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[–] Zomg@piefed.world 33 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

You can tell when it just looks too perfect or uniform imo

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 28 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

And the lighting is just a bit too vibrant, the colors have just a bit too much of the Lisa Frank HDR look...

yeah, real artists express their emotion, which is depression

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

The problem is that as they learn how people can tell the difference, they'll improve the models.

[–] ooterness@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks ago

"The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy, but these are new. They look human... sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait till he moved on you before I could zero him." -Kyle Reese

They can't improve the models in that way. They are non-determainistic and don't listen to instructions. They can tinker with training data but straight up forcing a model to work a certain way take all of the magic away. Without the magic, it would be worse and everything would look more uniform.

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[–] wander1236@sh.itjust.works 31 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

This needs more layers of screenshot

[–] tuckerm@feddit.online 23 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I propose that we call it a social media turducken when there's three different sites in one screenshot.

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[–] Tja@programming.dev 24 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] mathemachristian@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I'm not sure how survivorship bias applies here?

[–] SuDmit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You are aware only of those generated images that you did recognize. It's not like every image on the internet comes with disclamer for you to compare with and calculate your hit and miss percentage.

I guess it applies more to some comments than original post though.

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[–] LammaLemma@lemmy.ca 22 points 2 weeks ago (9 children)

Can any gen-z chime in and confirm this?

[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 38 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)
[–] accideath@feddit.org 34 points 2 weeks ago

Exactly. I mean, I’m sure I’ve seen some GenAI imagery that I didn’t notice as such but a lot of the time, it just immediately trips some subconscious uncanny valley detector

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 14 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

I can tell and I'm way older. If I had to guess I would say most with a science background or training involving critical thinking could tell easily, because from what I've seen the most susceptible groups judge an image with how much it aligns with their worldview and not objective reality or apparent image artifacts.

If people want to believe it is real they will, and if they don't then they will not regardless of of it is real. Gen-Z are probably just more critical of sales media from being forced to view it.

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 20 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

because from what I’ve seen the most susceptible groups judge an image with how much it aligns with their worldview and not objective reality or apparent image artifacts.

My mother in law is extremely right-wing Putin aligned.

Early in the Ukraine war (before AI images really became a thing), she was showing us MS-paint level image edits of a (black and white) WWII tank trying to roll over a (color) baby with a (color) Russian (super?)soldier holding the tank back with his bare hands to prevent it. She claimed this was proof of Ukrainians killing Russian babies, claiming it was a real, unedited photograph.

That was seriously a terrible image edit. Worse than shitpost memes. It really did look like somebody threw it together in 2 minutes with MS Paint. But she (at least claimed to) wholeheartedly believe it was a real, unedited photo.

This type of "it's real if I agree with it" person will believe anything they agree with, no matter how egregiously wrong and stupid it is.

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[–] Wirlocke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm a 26 year old gen z and feel I get it right most of the time. If I had to describe it, everything ai touches has this corporate clip-art stock photo style over it. Even when it tries to mimic a different art style or real photos, something feels soulless about it.

Something else, I used to believe that if AI images began to look good and it was used for hobbyist purposes that it might be fine. Despite this I've found that the moment I realize an image is AI I drop it in disinterest. It took AI for me to realize just how much the tiny details of art mattered; because if you look closely at an AI image all you'll see is what's statistically likely to be there unrelated to the subject matter.

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[–] Rugnjr@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah. I mean I'm pretty sure I can't tell 100% when the subject is like, just a neutral photo of someone.

But the product people always have the worst, most garish taste in images, making it easy to tell - they don't have the bare minimum of a photographer and artist between them and the slop, so the images are a tasteless person's idea of art, all high contrast, vignettes, dramatic lighting from multiple angles like it's on a film set etc.

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[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Lol "Gen z".

We all have eyes, don't we?

[–] qaz@lemmy.world 27 points 2 weeks ago

Most older people I know IRL can't spot generated images, my Gen Z coworkers always can.

[–] BlindPenguin@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

The problem is, that we're already at a point where some images require experienced eyes to be spotted. Someone working in graphics can tell, someone who doesn't will have more trouble to differentiate. At it'll get worse, because you just know, they'll double down on improving the AI up until a point where fiction and reality becomes indistinguishable when it comes to photos.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I've seen this "78%" figure thrown around but haven't been able to find the actual source for it. Does anyone know? As far as I can tell, it traces back to the Reddit thread, but I also know that consumer reports aren't always or even usually made easily available to the general public.

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[–] LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago

I honestly think derealization has an impact on how we view AI. Like, AI images are almost upsetting in nature for me now because it's just so wrong looking.

I know people who cannot tell AI images from reality anymore if they're photorealistic. These people have never experienced dissociation or derealization before. I tried to express what I saw in the images that was so fucked and they did not see it.

[–] BehavioralClam@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

First, GenZ haven't been "kids" for quite some time now, granpa lol. Its Gen Alpha, and even then they're getting older as well.

Second, GenZ and subsequent ones are completely disassosiated from the commercial world. A huge chunk of them don't like "commercial perfect", pre-baked vibes. That shows with everything: the garbagy/shitposty anti-mainstream meme culture, the "ugly" haircuts, minimally branded clothing (only area where this doesn't apply much is in music, since its kinda the other way around with how "mainstreamy" most music has become).

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[–] 87Six@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 weeks ago

Thank got they don't have a product created for intelligent people. Revenue would drop by 100%.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

The kids aren't alright they click ads/random links on the internet.

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[–] grandma@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Im gen Z and AI imagery has always triggered an instunctual disgust response in me, but some are really hard to tell these days. I'm afraid we're already starting to overcome the uncanny valley at least for those cases where people put effort into making it look real

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[–] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (11 children)

https://fake-or-real.net/

Okay, I wanted to know if I could do this and had a look if I could find a game or something like that. Turns out, yes, I could find one. And yes, I can see it. I got 19 of 20 right on medium difficulty for a start. I'll try some different combinations but it surprised me how fast I was.

I'm definitely not gen z

Edit: and the site is a wild mix of languages for me. But it'll do.

[–] vodka@feddit.org 31 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

That website is vibecoded slop, it's also using AI detection to determine if things are AI or not.

Images that are clearly AI get weird explanations that have nothing to do with the image, like I got an AI image of an owl sitting in a hole in a plaster wall, and it said it was AI because the snow was too uniform? There was no snow. Absolute slop.

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[–] Smoogs@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

genZ: a note from genX(we survived the uncanny valley of polar express) dont tell them HOW you can tell. theyll just take it as notes to try again on the next generation. stay disillusioned and let them keep failing. you owe them nothing. no enemy more vicious than apathy and anyone plaigerizing deserves as much. this is what drives our nihilism.

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