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Businesses with ugly AI menu redesigns

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Re: Businesses with ugly AI menu redesigns

#301

Post by bccdee »

buellerbueller wrote: post #295
bccdee wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's entirely rational to judge a service based on external signals. If you need medical treatment, will you go to a doctor operating out of an office, or a doctor operating out of their own garage? Theoretically, either one could be good or bad at medicine, but in practice, professionalism is a useful signal. An ugly AI-generated menu shows a naive disregard for the actual experience of your customers. This atti…

>If you need medical treatment, will you go to a doctor operating out of an office, or a doctor operating out of their own garage? Theoretically, either one could be good or bad at medicine, but in practice, professionalism is a useful signal. Is it a garage that has the same hygiene standards and medical equipment as an office? Your metaphor kinda falls apart here, because those are not orthogonal to the medical ser…

> Is it a garage that has the same hygiene standards and medical equipment as an office?

Maybe! A garage can be cleaned very thoroughly, especially if you renovate with that in mind. I wouldn't bet on it, though. A good doctor probably could operate out of a garage, but they wouldn't. And a good restaurateur would take time to think about their menu.

These signals select for people with domain knowledge and experience. Status has nothing to do with it. Even the cheapest street food will be evaluated against its competition based on external signals, and so better, more experienced vendors will tend to know how to present themselves well.

All else being equal, would you rather eat a hot dog from a cart with a nice sign, or from a guy sitting on the sidewalk who sharpied "Hotdog $3" on a piece of cardboard?

Re: Businesses with ugly AI menu redesigns

#302

Post by buellerbueller »

bccdee wrote: post #301
buellerbueller wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If you need medical treatment, will you go to a doctor operating out of an office, or a doctor operating out of their own garage? Theoretically, either one could be good or bad at medicine, but in practice, professionalism is a useful signal. Is it a garage that has the same hygiene standards and medical equipment as an office? Your metaphor kinda falls apart here, because those are not orthogonal to the medical ser…

> Is it a garage that has the same hygiene standards and medical equipment as an office? Maybe! A garage can be cleaned very thoroughly, especially if you renovate with that in mind. I wouldn't bet on it, though. A good doctor probably could operate out of a garage, but they wouldn't. And a good restaurateur would take time to think about their menu. These signals select for people with domain knowledge and experienc…

>All else being equal, would you rather eat a hot dog from a cart with a nice sign, or from a guy sitting on the sidewalk who sharpied "Hotdog $3" on a piece of cardboard?

You keep introducing these silly confounding variables. I wouldn't eat from any hotdog vendor who is sitting on the sidewalk, regardless of their signage. If both had carts, the signage wouldn't affect my decision, particularly because hotdogs are shit in my opinion. As nice sign on a hotdog cart is like putting lipstick on a pig.

Re: Businesses with ugly AI menu redesigns

#303

Post by kbelder »

mlekoszek wrote: post #109
biophysboy wrote: post #25

Low effort products will be used by low effort companies. In the case of restaurants, this might not necessarily be bad - I’ve been to amazing taco/burrito shops w abysmal menus. But if I went to a “high end” place with an AI menu and instagram decor - bad, bad sign. I genuinely think AI companies need to worry more about their brand. Just through how their products are used, they are perceived as a marker for low qu…

> But if I went to a “high end” place with an AI menu and instagram decor - bad, bad sign. Sometimes I wonder if this will settle into its own form of kitsch over the years, and whether people will someday try to emulate it (with a wink and a nod).

In thirty years, cool kids will be passing around memory crystals with a bootleg 2026 llm on it, so they can generate awesome retro AI images from back when AI still had soul.

Re: Businesses with ugly AI menu redesigns

#304

Post by kbelder »

oeitho wrote: post #40

I'm starting to see more and more generated images of food at restaurants where I live, but I'm happy to say that its still somewhat rare. My partner and I usually just give a one star review each on Google when we pass by a place like this and then carry on.

>My partner and I usually just give a one star review each on Google when we pass by a place like this and then carry on.

I find that behavior much more disgusting than the disgusting AI illustrations themselves.

Re: Businesses with ugly AI menu redesigns

#305

Post by sebastiennight »

numpad0 wrote: post #299
sebastiennight wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who was using TTS to listen to this thread, I can tell you this specific post is about 8 minutes of life I will never get back. I'll email you the bill

okay, I'm sorry, and I'll be more aware of the fact from now on that TTS software used by not negligible number of users[1] might not be well equipped to handle "zalgo decoration" of text. 1: this is not even the second time I've seen someone here mention TTS or legal/literal blindness, so I suppose this actually isn't negligible, not sarcastically

It did, however, perfectly get across your point about SNR, in a way that regular browsers can't possibly appreciate.

Re: Businesses with ugly AI menu redesigns

#306

Post by sebastiennight »

simonw wrote: post #64
tgv wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how AI poster designs have taken over local advertising Tale as old as time: a race to the bottom. Businesses trying to cut corners, thinking they can offset it against losses from exiting customers. If it wasn't, a lot will just cut more corners.

I don't think it's a corner cutting thing though. These businesses weren't paying someone to make a flier. The business owner was sweating for an hour in Microsoft Word and producing something that looked terrible. I expect they are now investing approximately the same about of time iterating in ChatGPT and producing something that genuinely looks like a huge improvement to them.

> These businesses weren't paying someone to make a flier.

My very first gig out of engineer school was updating the website and flyers for some nightclub in Paris. I was terribly paid, badly treated, blamed for everything despite them always giving me the elements at the very last minute, but they did pay someone.

> I expect they are now investing approximately the same about of time iterating in ChatGPT

They are definitely _not_ spending an hour iterating with ChatGPT... I would bet a large amount of money that the overwhelming majority pick one of the n options provided from the very first generation result with no further refinements.

Re: Businesses with ugly AI menu redesigns

#307

Post by bobthebob »

thuuuomas wrote: post #223
Planktonne wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a genuine comment, rather than snark, though I appreciate it might initially look that way. Your comment is an example of something that seems to accrue around AI users: casual, even gleeful, spite. You don't get this with every technology; there is no significant strand of the pro-3D printing community, for example, that goes around taunting people who don't use printers themselves. It's significant, I think…

> a characteristic that leads to a propensity for AI A smoldering sense of inadequacy compels use of the adequacy machine

[flagged]

Re: Businesses with ugly AI menu redesigns

#308

Post by dmaa »

vladms wrote: post #199
dmaa wrote: post #191

Recently I was shopping for curtains. Even though the shop I found has great reviews and a physical showroom with a real person, I took my business elsewhere when the web looks like this: https://en.vorhangbox.ch/curtain-home-consultation/ . Why would you do this to your business? I always found generic photobank stuff to be the worst, but apparently the bar can go lower.

So how did the website of the place you moved to looks like? I don't understand what is so wrong with that website. I don't love it, I don't have it either. If you were looking for a business that makes websites and you don't like their website I would understand, but this is not the case here.

The creepy ai slop woman?

Re: Businesses with ugly AI menu redesigns

#309

Post by PoignardAzur »

Planktonne wrote: post #186
bobthebob wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks I’ll use this in my prompt to make a better advertisements

This is a genuine comment, rather than snark, though I appreciate it might initially look that way. Your comment is an example of something that seems to accrue around AI users: casual, even gleeful, spite. You don't get this with every technology; there is no significant strand of the pro-3D printing community, for example, that goes around taunting people who don't use printers themselves. It's significant, I think…

I think GP is aware that they're waging a culture war, on the side that stands for brutal pragmatism and embracing the race to the bottom, and they know that casual displays of cynicism are the simplest way to prop up their side.

The gleeful spite and disdain for building community norms isn't an accident, it's an attitude they want to normalize.

Re: Businesses with ugly AI menu redesigns

#310

Post by cadamsdotcom »

moregrist wrote: post #259
cadamsdotcom wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you dislike it you could speak to whoever did it and tell them "it's ok to use AI for this, just don't settle for your first draft!"

Preferring badly handled-drawn art to AI slop does not mean “use better AI slop.”

After a few more rounds, it's no longer slop.
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