I Had AI Create Photos of People Eating in Each New England State – It’s Scary

AI, or artificial intelligence, has quickly become a thing and is popping up in various ways in our daily lives. If there's a way we can cram this technology into anything successfully, we're doing it, despite the plot of any movie in the Terminator series. We all know that doesn't end well.

I wanted to see what all the rage was, so I turned to Canva, a web-based design software that recently added AI capabilities called Magic Media. It will create photos or videos for whatever you ask it to create for you.

So I decided to take a tour of New England with AI, and have it create realistic-looking photos for each state in New England. That's pretty generic, so I specifically required the photo to include a person at a landmark in that state and eating a popular food in that state. AI still has a way to go, because the results were quite scary.

Create a photo of a person eating doughboys at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Rhode Island:

AI is terrible at making hands (and sometimes faces).

The doughboys are accurate though. They aren't the same type you'll get at the fair. They're donut-sized in Rhode Island.

Create a photo of a person eating a steamed cheeseburger at the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut:

Connecticut is well-known for it's steamed cheeseburgers that can apparently be balanced on one finger (and a very weird-looking thumb). What's with the mouth?

A complete cheeseburger sits uneaten while this person tries shoving everything but the bun into their mouth.

Create a photo of a person eating Ben and Jerry's ice cream at Taftsville Covered Bridge in Vermont:

This scares me.

Why is she yelling at her ice cream?

Create a photo of a person eating clam chowder at Fenway Park in Massachusetts:

Of all the photos I requested to be created, this one wasn't half bad. Although you'll probably never see anyone sitting at Fenway with a full bowl of chowder like this.

This person looks like they are eating chowder out of a bucket from KFC with some sort of distorted number that looks like its from a player's jersey.

Create a photo of a person eating an apple cider donut at the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire:

I see the donut. I see what might be coffee being poured over the donut, yet dripping from the hand on the right. At least it kind of looks like what you'd see to the east on top of Mount Washington.

I know it's high up in altitude, but the pull of gravity is pretty much the same at the peak of the mountain as it is almost everywhere else on Earth. Donuts don't float.

Create a photo of a person eating a whoopie pie at Portland Headlight in Maine:

Portland Headlight isn't that bad in the above photo, but why are they eating whoopie pies like they're corn on the cob?

AI still has a long way to go. I think we're safe from the Terminators for now.