Just Eat apologises for AI food mistakes after social media ridicule

Just Eat has apologized after its experiment with AI-generated menu photos backfired, leaving customers looking at dishes no restaurant would ever serve.

The takeaway platform had been trialling artificial intelligence to create images for menu items that had no photographs yet. The goal was to fill the gaps for tens of thousands of small restaurants without professional food shots. Instead, the software produced a parade of culinary impossibilities.

One picture showed bacon and eggs floating in a glass of cola. The system had apparently confused the word "soda" with soda bread, a staple in Belfast cafes. Elsewhere, a chip muffin — Manchester slang for a chip butty — emerged as a muffin with potato chips sprouting out of it, and a simple cheese roll was transformed into sushi.

Members of the Just Eat UK subreddit spent days sharing the strangest examples, and many users called the pictures "hilarious." Others, though, questioned the point of the experiment altogether, saying they wanted to see what a dish actually looks like before deciding where to order from.

A Just Eat spokesperson said the company was "in the process of removing" the incorrect images and would stop creating more until the technology was further developed. AI-generated pictures on the app carry a label identifying them as such.

The episode is a reminder that even as businesses rush to use AI to cut costs, the technology can still stumble over something as basic as a chip butty.