Meta’s AI thinks this is what a gravel bike should look like

Meta automatically enrolled REI in an AI ad program that generated a nonsensical gravel bike image, prompting the retailer to remove the ad after consumer backlash.
By Jeff Barber
   Last Updated:
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Screenshot posted on Reddit.

Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, and REI, one of the largest outdoor goods retailers in the US, are facing criticism for an AI-generated advertisement published last week. In the screenshot above, shared on Reddit over the weekend, a Van Rysel gravel bike is shown with a set of drop bars hanging off the back of the saddle, clearly the work of an AI tool that has no idea what a bike is supposed to look like.

Eagle-eyed viewers pointed out the logos on the bike are indecipherable as well, and the chain appears to be routed along the non-driveside of the bike. In a statement to Fast Company, an REI representative said that Meta created the ad after automatically enrolling the outdoor retailer in an AI ad personalization program. REI has since removed the ad following pushback from consumers.

Meta’s Advantage+ ad campaign optimization tools include a Generative AI feature that can use advertisers’ photos to “create full image variations inspired by your original ad creative.” Advertisers are presented with Ad Creative Generative AI Terms that read, in part, “You acknowledge that you may choose to use the Ad Creative AIs in your sole discretion and that your use of the Ad Creative AIs may result in Output that is digitally created, enhanced or altered and that such Output may be inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, offensive, and/or inappropriate.”

Social media users are increasingly bombarded with AI slop from various sources, including big-name advertisers. On Reddit and various social media platforms, users criticized REI in particular for its use of AI tools given the enormous environmental costs associated with the technology. A 2023 analysis found that generating a single image using AI uses the same amount of energy as fully charging a smartphone.

Generative AI image tools tend to struggle to produce plausible bike photos, even though bicycles have existed as simple machines for more than a hundred years. However, the technology continues to improve, and future AI-generated bike photos will not be as easy to detect.

 
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