REI pulls AI-generated bike ad after Meta turns it into a two-handlebar monstrosity

[midian182]

Facepalm: They say AI-generated images are becoming harder to spot, but that's not always the case. A recent Instagram ad for outdoor gear retail giant REI Co-op, for example, included a bike with handlebars at both the front and rear. But the company is placing the blame for this slop squarely on Meta.

As you can see in the post below, REI's promotional ad for the Van Rysel EDR AF bike appears to show too many chains, blurry lettering, and the unique feature of dual front and rear handlebars.

Rather than being rideable in both directions, this is, of course, another bizarre AI creation.

The ad had been up for a week before being taken down on June 22, plenty of time for users to fill the comments section with the expected vitriol, made even sharper by REI's outdoor/environmental focus.

Interestingly, fitness model Amity Rockwell later posted the image, revealing the woman in the ad was generated from her likeness.

Rockwell had been hired for a photo shoot a few months earlier in which a Van Rysel bike was used. The sight of an AI-generated ad left her bewildered.
"The thing is, this was an official shoot. That I got hired for," Rockwell wrote. "So why are they Al deep frying the images? To alter a product they're supposedly selling? And my face along with it? lol. I'm so lost."

Van Rysel North America confirmed that the original image came from its photo shoot with Rockwell, but any later images were not made by the bike firm.

The ad ended up on Reddit, where someone claiming to be an REI employee wrote that the retailer "is absolutely obsessed with AI now." That certainly doesn't make it unique – it's harder to find a company that doesn't fit that description these days.

But REI wasn't the one that decided an AI ad was a good idea. "Meta auto-enrolled us in an AI personalization tool that produced an inaccurate and inappropriate alteration of a vendor-provided image in some of our ads," an REI spokesperson said in a statement.

The firm jokingly added that "While a two-handled bike might be interesting, it is not something you will find in our assortment."

Meta admits in the terms for its generative AI ad tools that outputs can be "inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, offensive, and/or inappropriate" and that it's up to advertisers to check the ads before they go live.

Unsurprisingly, REI says it has now unenrolled from Meta's generative AI ad program, adding that it does not align with the company's values. It also apologized for the confusion undoubtedly caused by seeing a bike with two sets of handlebars.

Permalink to story:

REI pulls AI-generated bike ad after Meta turns it into a two-handlebar monstrosity

 

[wiyosaya]

Maybe its because I was told AI was behind it, but the image from the ad screams AI to me. Things that look off to me, besides the bi-directional bike, are the woman's too long neck, and male like body with a woman's head pasted to it. It seems like a 4-year old could do better cutting picture pieces out of a magazine and pasting them together in a collage.

And this is what is supposed to be making the World a better place?

OTOH, a bi-directional bike sounds like an interesting concept as REI said. Too bad AI can't discern when hallucinations are a good idea and when they are not.

 

[Endymio]

And this is what is supposed to be making the World a better place?

In the time it took you to read this article, AI models generated countless thousands of images and video frames, many appearing in ads in which you'll never notice their origin ... along with helping design better products from pharmaceuticals to aerospace parts, better diagnosed cancers and other serious diseases, optimized shipping routes to save time and millions of gallons of fuel, reduced airline missed flights and layover time, reduced water, fertilizer, and pesticide usage on millions of farms, and countless other uses.

It seems like a 4-year old could do better

And yet those running this company's advertising department -- who presumably are older than age 4 -- failed to note any problems and ran the ad for a full week before viewers complained. Even worse, a year from now Meta's image generation will have improved ... but the performance of these executives won't.

 

[puckle]

Maybe its because I was told AI was behind it, but the image from the ad screams AI to me. Things that look off to me, besides the bi-directional bike, are the woman's too long neck, and male like body with a woman's head pasted to it. It seems like a 4-year old could do better cutting picture pieces out of a magazine and pasting them together in a collage.

And this is what is supposed to be making the World a better place?

OTOH, a bi-directional bike sounds like an interesting concept as REI said. Too bad AI can't discern when hallucinations are a good idea and when they are not.

The bikes only got one crank and pedal too. Drop brake levers on straight bars, and for extra safety, disk and side pull brakes are fitted.

 

[stewi0001]

Yea, it would have been easier to take a photo...

 

[wiyosaya]

In the time it took you to read this article, AI models generated countless thousands of images and video frames, many appearing in ads in which you'll never notice their origin ... along with helping design better products from pharmaceuticals to aerospace parts, better diagnosed cancers and other serious diseases, optimized shipping routes to save time and millions of gallons of fuel, reduced airline missed flights and layover time, reduced water, fertilizer, and pesticide usage on millions of farms, and countless other uses.

Or so you would like to think, or is that what your miraculously engineered 8-ball told you?

I don't buy stuff because it looks good in a photo. Do you?

And yet those running this company's advertising department -- who presumably are older than age 4 -- failed to note any problems and ran the ad for a full week before viewers complained. Even worse, a year from now Meta's image generation will have improved ... but the performance of these executives won't.

Perhaps if Meta had actually told REI about the incursion of automated slop into the ad, they would have paid much more attention to it. Honesty makes a difference yet it seems like that is something you are unable to comprehend. If AI continues to perform to such high standards, it will be AI that will be out of a job in a year and have the execs saying "Goodbye to bad rubbish."

 

[wiyosaya]

Yea, it would have been easier to take a photo...

Absolutely true. In fact, REI said the Bike was an actual photo, yet AI hallucinated that adding a set of handlebars would somehow make the bike look better and perhaps more attractive to customers. Marketing at AI's finest. Two sets of handlebars would make anyone viewing the ad think the bike with the second set of handlebars a better value for the money and such a person would absolutely not be able to resist running out the moment they saw the picture and buying one, or so AI hallucinated. Much to AI's demise, I'm sure, it was completely unable to figure out that it had created a ruse. Perhaps it was the AI trainer's fault. They exposed AI to too many pictures of bikes with two sets of handlebars.

 

[Endymio]

Perhaps if Meta had actually told REI about the incursion of automated slop into the ad, they would have paid much more attention to it.

Meta did. They specifically warn users that, "outputs can be "inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, offensive, and/or inappropriate" and that it's up to advertisers to check the ads before they go live....." Honestly, how is it possible for you to be so reliably wrong?

If AI continues to perform to such high standards, it will be AI that will be out of a job in a year and have the execs saying "Goodbye to bad rubbish."

Tell you what. I'll bet any sum you care to wager that this won't happen. I'll even give you 10:1 odds. Deal?

 

[scoffer]

"......the retailer "is absolutely obsessed with AI now."

Where have we heard that before?