Meta boasts AI-generated images of northern lights, users go mad
Did you forget to look out your window, see the northern lights, and take a pic last week? No worries, Meta said in a Threads post – you can recreate the experience with the help of AI! No wonder most users thought the company was pulling their legs.
Image by Getty Images/Ian Forsyth
Did you forget to look out your window, see the northern lights, and take a pic last week? No worries, Meta said in a Threads post – you can recreate the experience with the help of AI! No wonder most users thought the company was pulling their legs.
Unfortunately, today’s social media works like this for big events: if you didn’t take a picture and post it, it didn’t happen.
This was confirmed last week when rare sightings of northern lights – the aurora borealis – entranced millions of viewers around the world. However, many missed the spectacle – and the chance to post some pics online.
Meta decided to help the unlucky ones out by using the Threads app to post AI-generated images of the northern lights, essentially suggesting that it’s perfectly fine to use technology to fake the magic.
However, even if the images of the northern lights – some hovering over the Golden Gate Bridge and some visible over a city skyline – are pretty neat, most users vehemently protested the use of tech to fake the images.
“Hey Meta, thanks for letting us know we can now use AI to replace our experiences in the natural world! I’m so happy we no longer need to research, travel, capture, and process our photos. Why bother with all that work to create art?” wrote Scott Smorra, a nature photographer, who called the images “ridiculous.”
Kevin Gill, an engineer at NASA, added: “I constantly need to debunk these fake images. These spread false information and only make our cultural intelligence worse. They misinform science and muddy the waters of reality.”
Hundreds of other users also criticized Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads, for promoting fake content over real experiences.
Some also argued that Meta’s social media team has misunderstood the essence of users’ posts, saying these were not just about showcasing a beautiful picture but also about participating in a collective celebration of a rare experience.