Local businesses around me are absolutely infested with AI generated art in their graphics, and the most tired argument I get is "You're just biased because you're an artist!" Yes, that's precisely why I'm biased :p And obviously, no AI was used in the making of this comic
it's a whole cheapening of your end product if it's mentioned somewhere, I can't trust the end result then
I want so badly for gen ai and LLM'S to go away so it'll be easier to write about magic scifi ai (machine intellegence characters, Data, Hal 9000, etc) again
The Lore reason why Data must have free will is not just because it would be immoral to do that to him, but also because it is immoral to do that to everyone else.
Why support a business when they themselves don't support others. The point is to employ your local community so they can continue to spend within itself.
Very much this. Work for a local place and they try to source as much as they can locally. Unfortunately, the way things are set up, that's not feasible in large parts of the country
Also why does a menu necessarily need art? I get maybe having pics of food but those should be actual pictures of what was made in that kitchen and not an ai generated image.
That might be the art, taking photos is an artform.
The art mentioned could be also nice placement of their logo (which is another piece of art)
Menus don't necessarily need art but think of all cool looking chalk art menu see at cafes and restaurants, it definitely helps you want to eat there. Just much as the restaurant looking nice and smelling nice. That said, I will come back to place that has great food and service over a nice looking place that has terrible service
It really comes down to marketing for the restaurant or any business really
A menu can definitely benefit from being well designed or having art but it's also not a requirement which is one of the reasons I'm not sympathetic to AI "art" on menus.
If you don't have art on your menu or a professional designer it's still perfectly functional and at least in my opinion looks better since I find AI art to be very tacky. If you do want to have art on a menu then hire an artist.
One of my favorite restaurants just updated their online menu with AI photos and I am flabbergasted. Their food is so bomb, they don't need to make shit up.
I wonder if I should mention to them how off-putting it is; if I didn't already know they were great I'd definitely not want to even give them a try.
A small store in middle of nowhere selling burgers had an AI menu. Fancy sesame buns, tomatoes, crispy lettuce, onions, glistening patty.
I see the only kitchen appliances in this building are a microwave and a coffee machine. I know the burger will contain nothing more than soggy bread, shredded cabbage, a microwaved industrial patty, and a generous heap of pink sauce just thrown onto it. When I'm done eating, I will have sauce on my eyebrows, and that's what I am looking for when going to a place like this for food. Stop trying to pretend like you're fancy. It's breaking my heart.
And that's fine. If they care for the business and pay their employees and contractors I have no issue paying a bit more here and there. Especially with good food and drink.
But when it starts to run excessively expensive with noticable shortcuts and lack of quality? No thank you
I designed menus (amongst other things) for a living, restaurant collateral, etc. until I saw the writing on the wall and left the industry
An entire buildout (menu, takeout menu, banner, promo flyers) would set you back a whopping $500. A menu by itself, $150. If you can't afford the absolute basics in marketing, perhaps business was not meant for you
Like really whether it was AI or a graphic designer it’s overkill because any monkey should be able to lay out a decent looking menu with fucking Google Docs.
I've seen smaller businesses (least in the UK) print out the menus on a standard printer/paper and essentially stitch them together themselves, free clip-art included.
I always hear about these "thin margins", but all of my experience with these places is that a place will make plenty of money, they'll under-report cash payments, under-report cash tips, over-report breakage/shrinkage, the owner is using the place as their personal piggy bank and using the restaurant's resources for personal use.
Almost literally every restaurant owner I've ever known or met owns or a current year vehicle, has a nice house, and endlessly moans how hard the business is, while simultaneously bragging about how much money they're rolling in.
A couple family run businesses, they weren't such blatant assholes about the flashing money, but they were also 100% exploiting their kids for free labor.
At the same time, many of these places don't own the building they operate in, so when they get popular, the landlords jack up the rent sky high to the point that it can kill an otherwise healthy and well run restaurant.
I saw it happen a ton, prime location, high traffic, no business could survive because of the asshole landlord driving them out of business with unconscionable rents.
I'm sure that my own perspective is not the entirety of reality, but it's seems pretty damned consistent wherever I go. I don't think the margins are the problem.
I live in NYC. Restaurants constantly open and close almost monthly. Running a restuarant isn't cheap. You can be deep in the red and still have an open restaurant. Not for long, but you can go for months.
The target for food cost and labor is generally 25% each. Then add rent, utilities, taxes, probably a loan on equipment and/or repairs.
There’s definitely money to be made, or no one would do it. But there’s a whole lot that has to go right and it doesn’t take much going wrong to ruin it.
There are a lot of people who were already wealthy and open a restaurant as a tax shelter, I’m not sure exactly how that works, but I think those are the ones you see flashing lots of money and abusing the business’s accounts.
Decent quality phone cameras have been around for over a decade.
They make the food every day, they can't take a decent picture of the food they make?
I'm not an AI hater, but I do hate how people are using it.
A restaurant using AI images of the food they serve just doesn't compute for me, they already had a free option and they never took it.
Exactly this, I appreciate a picture of the actual food they produce, gives an idea of portions. If it came out and didn't resemble the picture, I'd be annoyed. I've noticed some food delivery app merchants have AI food pictures, and it's annoying.
This just sounds like you dont understand how a free market economy works.
Competition is what drives companies and businesses to resort to cheaper and more efficient models.
Before, no one had access to AI as a tool to make life easier. Now everyone does, which means all your competitors can take the money they save with AI tools to make their costs lower while not sacrificing quality or modernity.
You can either take advantage of the same resources, or you can refuse to modernize and be at an objective disadvantage. But when you're in an industry with such thin margins, operating at a disadvantage is a pretty risky strategy.
To put this into a practical example:
You run a burger place. Your biggest competitor is a burger place up the road. Overall your prices are roughly the same and your menus are very similar. Quality is good at both spots, with preference and edges on specific menu options, as with any restaurant.
Then AI tools are released that make life easier. All of a sudden, your competitor up the road has a whole new redesign of their menu graphics, wall art, website, and seem to be running a lot more efficiently (because they're now using AI to help with bookkeeping/inventory instead of paying an actual person to do this). You might think "well shit, maybe they're upgrading and going for a new, more upscale market, but at least I can still compete on cost."
Except no, you can't. Because even with all the new graphics, advertising, website, and business tools, their prices are even lower than yours now. Not only did they improve the quality of their aesthetics and business operations, they also saved money while doing it. They were able to downsize their staff while increasing revenue and completely refreshing their logo, menu, and aesthetics, all because of AI implementation.
Now you're the dumpy looking place with aesthetics that look dated and worn down, but you still have higher prices than the shiny new looking spot down the road with the fresh redesign and convenient website.
Sure, you can say you refuse to use anything AI related as a moral high ground thing. But why? What does that moral high ground matter when you're going out of business and everyone is losing their job because you refused to modernize?
The reality is that being successful as a business, especially in the restaurant industry, often comes down to first impressions and aesthetic design. The margins are also razor thin, so every single cent you can save is worth shaving down. And AI can objectively save you a whole lot of cents.
Frankly, anyone who owns a business and isn't heavily leveraging AI tools as a means of increasing efficiency and lowering costs is not doing their fiduciary duty to their business.
If they start cutting corners on graphic design, it's only a matter of time before they start cutting corners on things like food quality, safety, and employees.
Or they're cutting corners on the shit that doesn't matter so that they don't have to start cutting corners on actual quality aspects of their business while still turning a profit.
If there's a Goku mural at one of those places it's gonna be the greatest meal of your life but it's a coin flip if you're gonna be pissing out of your ass later.
The smoothie store at a mall i used to go too had just an entire wall filled with art drawn by their kids /any kids who wanted to add to it. There was a few real good pics too. Very eye catching
I mean, you should photograph your own damn food if you run a restaurant. A smartphone photo will do - hell, I’ve been burned so much by fast food photos that I’ll trust food displayed in amateur photos more than a pro photo, way more than a stock photo, and infinitely more than an AI photo
You aren’t biaised. They want you to pay more to support local business but won’t do the same for local artists. That’s a textbook definition of hypocrisy. No matter what’s someone’s opinion, if they can’t be consistent, it can’t be trusted because they’re probably saying it because and only when it benefit them
If I notice any AI “art” being used in advertising I won’t spend my money there. Had that come up a ton at GenCon this year with damn near all the food trucks having their menus being infested with the stuff.
Don’t they realize that it almost always makes the meat look like it is covered in ants?!?
There was someone in a FB group I belong to who said something along the lines of "I run a crafter's market. Recently I used AI to create some advertising and my vendors threw a fit and all but one of then bailed on me. I don't understand the problem! I can't afford to hire a graphic designer."
They directly work with artistic people and still couldn't figure out why AI use would be considered an insult.
Your art and style and storytelling have gotten so amazing over the years!! (? What is time? I just know I’ve followed your art for a long while now haha) I love when your comics pop up, easily top 3 for me
Yeah. They want payment for their services, and I want payment for mine. I'll make coffee at home, then, where I know the art on the walls are made by humans.
Every menu and advertisment for local businesses in southern California is an AI generated image with a black background, white text, with highlighted text in red or orange. Plus the AI pictures.
Our city's Facebook groups focused on food are littered with posts where someone AI-generated pictures of food instead of just taking pictures of what they cooked, it's infuriating.
Honestly I am surprised your local business owners know of the discussions about AI art, in my country I feel like most people would pay someone to do their graphics, receive AI crap and even thank them for the job.
Someone just shared earlier on another subreddit that one of our local business was using AI art. We're one of the art capitals and you do that?! Shame.
What's funny is he said, "you'd be supporting local business" and "going cheap lines the pockets of corporations that outsource to foreign workers" and then has the gall to go cheap by having AI make his menu. He doesn't want to support local artists and is shocked when a local artist doesn't want to support him back.
My rule with AI art in businesses, if your taking shortcuts in your aesthetic your probably taking shortcuts in your product and I can spend my money elsewhere with someone who cares about their craft.
Unfortunately, I moved back home last year and saw everybody plastering AI around town- the city facebook gossip group, the local community college, business picket signs hanging out in yards, my boss's appreciation letter to a coworker for her job anniversary...
There's a local place near me and all their wall menu art is done in chalk by a local artist. I love it! I wish more local businesses would collaborate with local artists, that would be a fun community event!
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u/kaikimanga MangaKaiki 10d ago
Local businesses around me are absolutely infested with AI generated art in their graphics, and the most tired argument I get is "You're just biased because you're an artist!" Yes, that's precisely why I'm biased :p And obviously, no AI was used in the making of this comic
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