Just Eat pauses AI food images after regional dishes are misrepresented

Just Eat has apologised after AI-generated pictures on its food delivery app misrepresented several regional dishes, including Manchester’s chip muffin and a Belfast café’s bacon and egg soda bread.

The company said it was removing incorrect images and would pause creating new ones until the technology had been developed further. It had been testing AI to provide pictures for restaurant menu items that did not yet have images.

Some results turned familiar food into unlikely combinations. A chip muffin — also known as a chip butty — appeared as chips baked into a muffin, while soda bread was shown as a glass of fizzy drink with bacon and an egg floating in it. A cheese roll was depicted as cheese shaped like sushi.

Just Eat said it works with tens of thousands of small restaurants on food imagery, including by funding professional local photographers. A spokesperson said the company had been trialling AI-enhanced images and that the results were not always right first time.

The pictures prompted ridicule on social media, with users posting examples of the images on a Just Eat UK subreddit. The BBC said some unusual AI-generated pictures were still visible on menus; the app labels images made using AI.

Some users also questioned whether AI pictures could set misleading expectations. One Instagram user said customers wanted to see what a dish actually looked like when deciding what to order.