Commuters blast frightful AI art in Halloween transport ads

Transport for Ireland is the latest organisation to discover that using AI art for a brand campaign can seriously backfire. Commuters were quick to label its Halloween campaign as lazy, embarrassing and worse after it tried to engage social media users with AI images.

The transport provider made social media posts offering commuters a chance to win €50 travel credit if they guessed the identities of the characters in a series of four illustrations. But dozens of people, including some Irish artists, piled on the posts to criticise the obvious use of AI image generation.

The illustrator Phil Dunne responded on the former Twitter saying: "I’m really disheartened to see AI used for this promotion. You could have hired an Irish illustrator and paid them for this type of promotion." "You guys focus so much on sustainability and then use AI generated images which are awful to the environment instead of just commissioning Irish artists," another person wrote. "Really hard to tell what these characters are supposed to be with the mess of AI generated slop used to make them," was another opinion.

Transport for Ireland (TFI) has responded individually to many of the comments, apologising for any “frustration” caused. It told The Journal that the concept had been proposed by an agency, which had applied an “AI filter” to existing images available on Shutterstock, the stock photo library.

It said: “We thought this was a novel idea worth exploring for a small campaign as we’re always open to exploring the latest tools and technologies in the creative space in collaboration with our agencies.” Commuters are disappointed that this exploration of the latest technologies hasn't yet extended to the use of tap payment by bank card for trains and busses.

While AI artworks created by an autonomous AI artist just sold at Sotheby's for over $350,00, numerous companies and organisations have faced online embarrassment after being shamed for using AI art. We've seen examples as varied as Lego, the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Dungeons & Dragons and Toys R Us.

The continued public backlash shows that despite advances in the technology, the use of fully blown AI image generation for final assets can still be toxic. It's no wonder that some brands are banning AI in advertising contracts.