AILSA CHANG, HOST:
From AI chatbots to AI romantic partners, artificial intelligence is infused all through our tech culture, right? And now, people are bringing pictures of AI creations to med spas, salons, even bridal shops, asking vendors, designers and stylists to bring these AI images to life. Well, business owners are saying these pictures create a totally false sense of what is even in the realm of possibility. Washington Post internet culture reporter Tatum Hunter wrote all about this and joins us now. Hi, Tatum.
TATUM HUNTER: Hi.
CHANG: OK, so give us just a couple examples that really struck you, where, you know, like, some client sought out some service with an AI image in mind, and the expectation was just totally defying reality.
HUNTER: I called a lot of small business owners for this story. And I think my favorite example was a event planner in Ohio, who had a bride-to-be approach her with some inspo for her upcoming wedding she had found on the internet and that was generated by AI. And the scene in the image was trees growing out of the floor...
CHANG: (Laughter).
HUNTER: ...You know, these luxury green, emerald linens draped over the wedding tables, sprawling flower arrangements, you know, perfect Hollywood lighting. And the event planner said that she was just dumbstruck because it looked like the Met Gala and would have taken hundreds of thousands...
CHANG: (Laughter).
HUNTER: ...Of dollars to reproduce.
CHANG: Well, I guess what I'm wondering is how are these consumer expectations affecting the bottom line? Like, are people walking out the door and basically saying to these vendors, well, if you don't have the skills to replicate this, then I'll just find someone who can. Like, is that what is happening right now?
HUNTER: I heard multiple instances where people lost out on what they felt could have been business for them because of this type of awkward run-in. That event planner said that, you know, she could have made, you know, a $30,000 check doing the wedding for that bride if - maybe perhaps if that AI image hadn't come into play.
Also spoken with a wedding dress designer who had a client walk out when she, you know, couldn't get the dress that she wanted. The dress was this floor length white gown, and it had no straps, and it had no back. And when the designer said to them...
CHANG: How does it stay on? (laughter).
HUNTER: Yeah, she said, well, this - you know, this is beautiful, but it's not going to stay on your body. But that wasn't good enough for that person.
CHANG: There are ways that you just haven't thought of - a lot of tape. OK, the thing is, people have long wanted to look like the unreal thing they see in an airbrushed or a color-enhanced photo. But is there something different about now with the growth of AI? Like, do people seem even more delusional, more demanding about their hopes and dreams?
HUNTER: So I think that on one hand, this is just another step in the, you know, evolution of how we imagine what we want as consumers and, you know, perhaps in a consumeristic culture. But on another hand, it's different because this stuff doesn't necessarily have a basis in reality. Even though the models are trained on, you know, images that I'm sure include real photographs of something like a wedding space, we are giving people the power to ask for something that isn't real. We struggle as a culture with our narrow standards of beauty. And it's easy to see in this instance how AI has further narrowed...
CHANG: Right.
HUNTER: ...And kind of amped things up because of the just preponderance of this slop on the internet and how much of it we're seeing.
CHANG: That is Washington Post internet culture reporter Tatum Hunter. Thank you so much.
HUNTER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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