{"id":2211079,"date":"2026-10-21T17:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T14:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2211079"},"modified":"2026-10-21T17:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T14:04:13","slug":"just-eat-apologises-for-ai-food-mistakes-after-social-media-ridicule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2211079","title":{"rendered":"Just Eat apologises for AI food mistakes after social media ridicule"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/f80b\/live\/ce035410-cd6d-11f1-bc2e-018d645d8d21.png”]<\/p>\n

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\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
A chip muffin and bacon and egg soda – menu items well known in parts of the UK, but not to the AI which made this<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Just Eat has apologised after it was ridiculed online over a series of mistakes with AI-generated pictures for some of its restaurants’ food items.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The online food delivery platform had been testing out the tech to showcase food which didn’t have images yet – but not all turned out as planned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Instead the AI invented several bizarre concoctions, from bacon and eggs floating in a glass of cola – a confusion between “soda” and “soda bread” – to chips poking out of muffins.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A Just Eat spokesperson said the firm was “in the process of removing” the incorrect images, and would stop making more until the AI was further developed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Salt and pepper chips usually involves frying chips with onions, garlic and chillies – a little bit more exciting than this suggests<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“We work with tens of thousands of small restaurants on their food imagery, including funding professional local photographers,” the spokesperson told the BBC. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We’ve been trialling AI-enhanced images, and as with any new technology, it isn’t always quite right the first time.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
What some parts of Manchester call a “chip muffin” – also known as a chip butty – causing the AI to invent a dish which seemingly involved baking potato into bread<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The incident highlights the difficulties companies can still face when using AI to speed up or simplify work processes, especially when it is used to interpret words in a specific context.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Members of the Just Eat UK subreddit have flocked to the site over the past few days to post the latest unintentionally hilarious spins on takeaway food items.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Any picture generated using AI on the delivery app appears with a label indicating so, and the BBC has spotted many of the more unusual takes still up on menus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
A “cheese roll” was inexplicably turned into sushi<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A Belfast cafe, meanwhile, had its bacon and egg soda bread dish represented as a glass of fizzy drink with a cooked egg and bacon floating in it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Spelling mistakes on menu items have sometimes added to the confusion, with the Instagram account @uknewestfoods posting a picture of garlic bread in the shape of a plane – presumably because of a misspelling of the word “plain”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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