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Ghost Kitchens Are Advertising AI-Generated Food on DoorDash and Grubhub

Reality bending, AI-generated cheesesteaks and pasta dishes are flooding food delivery services.
An image of an AI-generated cheesesteak and lobster roll.
Image: DoorDash / 404 Media
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Dozens of Ghost kitchens, restaurants that serve food exclusively by delivery on apps like DoorDash and Grubhub, are selling food that they promote to customers with AI-generated images. It’s common for advertisements to stage or edit pictures of food to make it look more enticing, but in these cases the ghost kitchens are showing people pictures of food that literally doesn’t exist, and looks nothing like the actual items they’re selling, sometimes because the faulty AI is producing physically impossible food items.  

I first learned about AI-generated images on food delivery services last week after publishing a story about AI-generated images of food on Instacart recipes. Initially, a reader had tipped me about some strange looking pasta from a business on DoorDash called Pasta Lovers. 

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