The internet is so awash with AI-generated content it’s hard to know what’s real. AI has seemingly overcome its too-many-fingers problem when dreaming up people, and viewers need an ever-keener eye to spot the unlikely limb movements, minor defiance of physics and vague uncanniness that thankfully still dog the tool.
In the flood of fake footage, two foodie trends in AI-generated short-form content are emerging: cutting glass fruit and feeding food to itself.
Pleasingly, these don’t make any pretence about being genuine. Their hyper-unrealness is part of the appeal. The first subgenre (see @impossibleais on TikTok) has strict parameters. An as-if-made-of-glass, but wet and gelatinous piece of fruit is chopped with a searingly sharp knife on a wooden chopping board. The slices – which sometimes clink down, and other times flop like jelly – reveal a transparent but accurate cross-section of the fruit in question. In some examples, an oozing caramel-like core drains out.
@impossibleais Cutting Glass Fruit (berry edition) #asmr #satisfying #asmrsounds #fruit ♬ green to blue - slowed + reverbed - daniel.mp3
The second (see @ReallyWeirdAI) is more disturbing but just as satisfying. Foodstuffs of all kinds are given cutesy faces and get spoon-fed pieces of the same foodstuff, which they chomp with delight. Both come drenched with ASMR-like sounds, prompting a Homer-Simpson-drooling effect in viewers.
@reallyweirdai feeding my foods part 10 🌰 #aiartcommunity #aiartwork #aiartist #cursed #food #horror #aiart #fyp ♬ Never Forgive Me, Never Forget Me - Avith Ortega & Akira Yamaoka
It’s not clear whether the subtexts to each trend – that is, eating glass and cannibalism – are intentionally dark by design. Perhaps the near-infinite iterations of the prompt ‘hyper-realistic videos to mesmerise social media users’ just happened upon the fact our monkey brains are easy to manipulate with the macabre.
AI is fast proving itself as a weapon of mass mesmerisation.
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