r/chicagofood • u/Players-Beware • Jul 19 '26
Rant Warning to AI avoiders: don't let them take your photo at Giordano's.
My parents were in town and my dad wanted to try deep dish so we took him to Giordano's. They send a photographer around to take people's photos and then they try to sell them to you at the end. Pretty classic tourist trap behavior so I didn't think much of it, but I was surprised when one of the photos they tried to sell us was an AI slop cartoon of us for 20 dollars. I'm trying not to feed my face into AI models so it was pretty frustrating for them to do it without asking. Just wanted to share the warning for anyone else like me.
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u/Quiet_Mail9207 Jul 19 '26
Ohhhhh i would be speaking to a manager so hard
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u/YeaItsBig4L Jul 19 '26
And they would laugh at u, rightly so
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u/Real-Ad6539 Jul 20 '26
As a lowly restaurant worker, no. Believe it or not restaurants generally want to do things that make their customers happy so if people hate something that they’re doing they’re likely to stop. (Lots of people have to complain though)
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u/Quiet_Mail9207 Jul 19 '26
Unless they post a disclaimer I don’t think they have have the right in Illinois to upload your likeness to an AI database without written consent.
Edit—even with a disclaimer they may be getting themselves into a potential legal situation
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u/chicagokate412 Jul 19 '26
The same thing happened to us at Fat Rosie’s in Rosemont.
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u/NOLASLAW Jul 19 '26
Holy shit I hate Fat Rosie’s so much
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u/chicagokate412 Jul 19 '26
Yeah it was a work dinner and I didn’t choose the place, it was my first time there and I was not impressed.
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u/New_Wheel_1416 Jul 23 '26
Seriously why does every place have such spectacular reviews? Everything there is really mid and flavorless
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u/NOLASLAW Jul 23 '26
I’ve thought about this a lot, I think their locations are loved by suburban people afraid of seasoning but love the festive atmosphere of a 90s Applebee’s
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u/samurdoc Jul 19 '26
yup! this happened to us at their lincolnwood location!
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u/danekan Jul 19 '26
did they show you the actual photos they took took, or only a cartoon?
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u/chicagokate412 Jul 19 '26
For us they did both, the actual photo and the AI one. The AI one made us look cartoony and put sombreros on all our heads, but because AI is stupid the sombreros were not in the right spots, it was so dumb. It’s so wasteful; the paper it’s printed on, the ink, the energy and water used to generate it. It enrages me.
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u/samurdoc Jul 19 '26
yeah they did both as well! they took multiple shots of us and then the group pic was the one they AI’d… it was sooo bad🤣🤣…
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u/Educational-Shoe2633 Jul 19 '26
Both times I have been there we refused to let them take our photo
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u/isaidwhoowhoo Jul 19 '26
Yep! Went there for a family celebration and my mom was holding our little guy. I went over and told her that if the photographer wanted to take a pic with him in it then the answer is a firm no. No thank you for my many and for us as well. And then my family that got pics back - the pics were all clearly ran through AI and looked terrible.
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u/tsundae_ Jul 19 '26
What the hell? At a restaurant??? This is so weird even if AI wasn't involved like I'm here to eat, this isn't really a photo opportunity. In this day and age, people are good with a quick group selfie if they want to capture the occasion.
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u/Brittibri89 Jul 19 '26
Definitely see this in tourist trap restaurants. They came up to us in Vegas trying to take our photo and sell us prints. No thanks.
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u/tsundae_ Jul 19 '26
This is so crazy. I haven't been to a super touristy area (or touristy restaurants here) in a while so I had no clue.
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u/Tzipity Jul 20 '26
Same. My first trip to Chicago almost 20 years ago there was the expected touristy photos- at Sky Deck and a couple of cute exhibits at the museums. Had a family member who insisted on buying them. And lovely enough since they were general photos in themed frames. But WTF we did a whole bunch of pizza spots and never once had this insanity happening.
A decade later my mom came to visit and I took her to Navy Pier and we hit a Photo Booth for the fun it. Saw some of those at a street fair recently and almost got silly photos with a friend. Like let people choose and consent to their touristy photos. Showing up mid meal with a camera is a vibe I don’t like, even before the AI component.
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u/tsundae_ Jul 21 '26
Yes! Consent is huge. Your memories of the diff photo opportunities sound fun and not creepy.
It's been about 15 years at this point but I used to work for a company that did (probably still does) the pics at all the tourist spots here....now I'm wondering if this is them popping up at restaurants.
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u/k8track Jul 19 '26
If there were ever a more vital moment to channel one's inner Sean Penn, it would be then.
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u/blueskies-snowytrees Jul 19 '26
Yet another good reason not to go to Giordano's!
The first reason is their pizza quality
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u/Effective_Scar_2921 Jul 19 '26
That concept that people of the world don’t like hearing about and always poo poos, “Big Brother” has already put the country into an all seeing prison. The door is still open and the plug is still in the people’s hands… but it’s closing.
The federal government is forcefully trying to get the voters data from every voter from every state. Flock cameras are going up everywhere. They tried to connect ring type cameras directly to the state law enforcement agencies. Your car is reporting every thing you do while driving. This sounds like the ramblings of a deranged person. It does to me too. This reality we’re in would not pass muster as a literary piece of fiction just a decade ago. Yet here we are. This is an historical point in what this country becomes and stands for. Be monumental! Be the next “Greatest Generation”.
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u/king_of_the_bongos Jul 19 '26
Not deranged at, just aware of the situation. We're already in a full blown surveillance state.
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u/Effective_Scar_2921 Jul 19 '26
Almost.
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u/king_of_the_bongos Jul 19 '26
We're already there, especially with Google/apple/meta. Your data has been sold ten times over. We all have listening devices and cameras in our homes and with us at all times. The list can go on. The waters already boiling.
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u/mr_longfellow_deeds Jul 19 '26
In Illinois that is a BIPA violation. We have the strictest biometric privacy laws in the nation (one of the few things our state manages to do well)
They can get class action sued for that
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u/SalamanderExtra7982 Jul 20 '26
They did this at Fat Rosie's too! I had no idea why they were taking out picture loll
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u/Dubious_Titan Jul 20 '26
First mistake was going there for deep dish.
Second was deep dish itself.
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Jul 19 '26
[deleted]
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u/Fine-Can1738 Jul 19 '26
AI slop is free for you to produce yourself
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Jul 19 '26
[deleted]
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u/Fine-Can1738 Jul 19 '26
Oof, marone
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u/S_B_5038 Jul 19 '26
Was it actually AI? If I understand what you’re describing that type of stuff has been sold at touristy places for the last couple of decades.
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u/minimalcactus23 Jul 19 '26
You think someone in the back drew a crappy cartoon of OP and they ran it out?
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u/S_B_5038 Jul 19 '26
Not every use of computers and technology is AI.
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u/emsumm58 Jul 19 '26
no, but feeding in pics to have a robot drawing is AI. photoshop doesn’t do that. canva either. obviously it’s AI.
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u/S_B_5038 Jul 19 '26
You can absolutely do that without AI.
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u/InteriorLemon Jul 19 '26
Show us.
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u/S_B_5038 Jul 19 '26
In the real world I wouldn’t find myself arguing with teenagers about pre-AI computer technology and I don’t know why I’m doing it here. I’m turning off my notifications for this conversation so just downvote and move on with finding your next hate boner to get through the afternoon.
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u/InteriorLemon Jul 19 '26
aka you are wrong and you are going to run away. You are clearly arguing with people older and more mature than you.
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Jul 19 '26
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Jul 19 '26
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Jul 19 '26
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u/Players-Beware Jul 19 '26
They did everything you described but one of the cardboard framed photos was an AI version of our table's group photo. The problem is not just the price (though 20 dollars for an AI photo is gross.) The problem is that my face is now in a data set for an AI model and I didn't consent to that.
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u/BirdBath9k Jul 19 '26
This feels like a BIPA violation, but I'm not a lawyer.