The Internet Is Loving This AI-Generated Food Trend

The internet is obsessed with the uncanny valley of artificial intelligence, or AI, content. No matter which platform you use, you're bound to run into a hilarious movie script, hyper-realistic human subjects (just don't look at the hands), and more generated solely using AI technology. With the rise of publicly accessible AI platforms like chatGPT, AI enthusiasts have published a plethora of creations that expose the way computers think of the world, most notably when it comes to food.

In its earliest iterations, AI rocked the food world when Google used AI to develop the perfect cookie bread recipe. Inspired by her pandemic-fueled baking sprees, Sara Robinson, one of Google Cloud's team members who specializes in AI, brought her knowledge of data and computers to the kitchen. The result? A perfectly 50/50 bread and cookie recipe, known as "breakie." Since then, AI has given rise to one food trend that has the internet mesmerized.

With enhanced workflow and increased user convenience, businesses are relying on AI more than ever. It's no wonder the fast food industry is already using AI to improve the drive-thru experience. A Panera Bread in Rochester, NY is already testing "Tori" — the restaurant industry's first conversational robot voice — in the drive-thru, according to Rochester First. Inspired by pandemic staffing shortages, Tori is able to take the customer's order, enter it into the register, and communicate it to the kitchen all on her own — with employees able to listen in while they now are able to prioritize other tasks in the kitchen.

For those who would rather eat at home, organizing meal preps no longer means sifting through countless recipes that match dietary restrictions, calorie counts, or protein intake. On TikTok, a user called @thenova.ai shows how by simply typing in specific desired meal plans into AI platform ChatGPT, which is able to provide detailed plans with recipes, timelines, and more. 

AI's influence on the food industry is evolving steadily, but there's one food trend that confuses and delights the palate: AI-generated food pictures

The latest online food trend leans on AI to visually interpret the food we eat. Platforms like AI food generator, Lunchbox, fuel this trend by offering users a chance to create their own AI-generated food pics by simply typing in exactly what they're looking for, whether it's AI's version of a salad or a bear eating a salad. Like most AI generators, the platform produces images that are uniquely rendered by artificial intelligence, suggesting that food items that add an image see 70% more orders and 65% higher sales compared to restaurants that do not.

Brands have not shied away from this trend. Fast-food giant Papa John's asked AI to create the perfect pizza while food magazine Bon Appétit used AI to expose the similarities among New American dishes. On TikTok, iterations of AI-generated food pics can be found by the dozens like this Resident Evil-inspired cheesecake. As this trend continues to develop, it won't be long before computers become the new foodies of the internet.