Meta gets roasted on Threads for suggesting you should fake Northern Lights photos

Why bother taking photos when you can type a prompt?

· TechRadar

News By Mark Wilson published 14 October 2024

Meta's post on Threads (above) contained three images of AI-generated Northern Lights photos (Image credit: Meta)

For all the benefits of the best AI image generators, many of us are worried about a torrent of misinformation and fakery. Meta, it seems, didn't get the memo – in a Threads post, it's just recommended that those of us who missed the recent return of the Northern Lights should just fake shots using Meta AI instead.

The Threads post, spotted by The Verge, is titled "POV: you missed the northern lights IRL, so you made your own with Meta AI" and includes AI-generated images of the phenomena over landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge and Las Vegas.

Meta has received a justifiable roasting for its tone-deaf post in the Threads comments. "Please sell Instagram to someone who cares about photography" noted one response, while NASA software engineer Kevin M. Gill remarked that fake images like Meta's "make our cultural intelligence worse".

It's possible that Meta's Threads post was just an errant social media post rather than a reflection of the company's broader view on how Meta AI's image generator should be used. And it could be argued that there's little wrong with generating images like Meta's examples, as long as creators are clear about their origin.

(Image credit: Meta)

The problem is that the tone of Meta's post suggests people should use AI to mislead their followers into thinking that they'd photographed a real event.

For many, that's crossing a line that could have more serious repercussions for news events that are more consequential than the Northern Lights.

But where is the line?

(Image credit: Future)

Is posting AI-generated photos of the Northern Lights any worse than using Photoshop's Sky Replacement tool (above)? Or editing your photos with Adobe's Generative Fill? These are the kinds of questions that generative AI tools are raising on a daily basis – and this Meta misstep is an example of how thin the line can be.

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