Mayor is Mocked After Posting AI Images of New City Parks With ‘Mutant Humans’

A mayor in Australia has been tripped up by generative AI after posting concept images of new parks containing humans with floating limbs and twisted bodies.

Nicholas Reece is seeking re-election as Melbourne’s Lord Mayor and made a tweet on X announcing he will build 28 new parks in Australia’s second largest city. The tweet had four images attached of what he envisions the parks will look like.

X users were quick to jump on the mangled representations of humans in the images with one commenter asking: “Sir, why is there a dead body in your pictures?”

“What is your policy on dealing with these mutant beings infiltrating Melbourne in your photographs?,” Asks another.

Many asked why the mayor hadn’t hired a human concept artist to make the drawings but The Guardian notes that the pictures are in fact credited to Hassell Architects.

Reece apparently saw the funny side and later wrote: “You guys should’ve seen the originals!”

The Guardian reports there are no rules against using AI image generators during elections in Australia. While the mayor’s faux pas is relatively harmless, AI can be used to create deceptive images.

However, given that the images appear to have been generated by an in-house design team at an architectural firm, the evidence points to creatives using these tools to complete jobs assigned to them. While these AI images likely received some retouching and editing, the fact is it takes a lot less time to generate pictures with AI than it does to create art like this from scratch.