A viral restaurant in San Francisco has responded after they were caught in a storm over using AI-generated adverts to try and entice customers.
At this point, artificial intelligence has made it’s way into every walk of life. People use it at work to complete menial tasks, social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) have AI built in, and it’s hard not to see it being used in adverts for different businesses.
These adverts have become incredibly common in the food world, with restaurants and local cafes using them to make their food look even better than normal. Some customers have even been using AI to get refunds from food delivery apps.
However, in the case of Grind and Unwind, a restaurant in San Francisco, they came under fire from customers and social media users after using AI-generated images for their menus.
Restaurant drops AI menus and ads after graffiti #
Speaking to NBC Bay Area, Grind and Unwind’s Lyndsey Lozano said they’d used the AI ads as a “temporary” measure, but ended up suffering graffiti on the outside of the restaurant, with someone writing “seriously?” over the menus.
“It’s a touristy area, we thought let’s put some pictures up, let’s put signs up so they know what we have, it as just a temporary sign, to kind of let everyone know we are here… but it did not get the response we were expecting,” Lozano said, noting that the ads have come down, with more focus being put on their food.
“We’re focusing on our good pastries, on our coffee, we have a really good burger,” she added. “We’re trying to make a really nice spot for locals to hang out, to be with each other and enjoy really delicious baked goods.”
Elsewhere in San Francisco, Chez Xue has been going viral after customers found that the restaurant will charge you if your kids act in an unruly manner.
They charged one customer $5.47 for their child breaking a teacup by playing on their seat.