Just Eat has apologised after it was ridiculed online over a series of mistakes with AI-generated pictures for some of its restaurants’ food items.

The online food delivery platform had been testing out the tech to showcase food which didn’t have images yet – but not all turned out as planned.

Instead the AI invented several bizarre concoctions, from bacon and eggs floating in a glass of cola – a confusion between “soda” and “soda bread” – to chips poking out of muffins.

A Just Eat spokesperson said the firm was “in the process of removing” the incorrect images, and would stop making more until the AI was further developed.

“We work with tens of thousands of small restaurants on their food imagery, including funding professional local photographers,” the spokesperson told the BBC.

“We’ve been trialling AI-enhanced images, and as with any new technology, it isn’t always quite right the first time.”

The incident highlights the difficulties companies can still face when using AI to speed up or simplify work processes, especially when it is used to interpret words in a specific context.

Members of the Just Eat UK subreddit have flocked to the site over the past few days to post the latest unintentionally hilarious spins on takeaway food items.

Any picture generated using AI on the delivery app appears with a label indicating so, and the BBC has spotted many of the more unusual takes still up on menus.

A Belfast cafe, meanwhile, had its bacon and egg soda bread dish represented as a glass of fizzy drink with a cooked egg and bacon floating in it.

Spelling mistakes on menu items have sometimes added to the confusion, with the Instagram account @uknewestfoods posting a picture of garlic bread in the shape of a plane – presumably because of a misspelling of the word “plain”.

Meanwhile, a “cheese roll” – bread and cheese – instead became slabs of cheese rolled into a sushi roll.

While some on social media said they found the images “hilarious”, another was less interested in the AI-generated dishes, saying: “Well, that lot just helped my diet”.

Meanwhile, one person on Instagram, external questioned why customers would ever want to see AI images of a restaurant’s food even if they were closer to the real thing.

“I want to see what the dish actually looks like as it helps me decide who to order from or what to order,” they said.

“These ‘perfect’ AI versions just lead to disappointment if that’s what you think your meal will look like.”

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