Meta suggests that AI Northern Lights images are as good as the real thing

Meta has a suggestion for people like me who forgot to go out and see the Northern Lights on Thursday night: just use the AI ​​to cheat! But Threads users who responded to Meta’s idea, which was posted along with three AI-generated images of the Aurora Borealis Meta last night, seemed to disagree.

The photos show the Northern Lights moving over the Golden Gate Bridge, over the city skyline, and over the ferris wheel. It is clearly intended to adhere to the trending period of people posting their photos of the Northern Lights from the spectacular and unusual display of lights, which swept across the United States on Thursday night.

Once you get past the first few comments from people sharing their AI-generated Northern Lights photos, the responses range from thoughtful criticism:

One person claiming to be an “astronaut/particle physicist and AI scientist” had a detailed answer:

Others shared photos they claimed to have taken of the practice:

Like the Olympics ad pulled by Google, Meta’s communications team failed to read the room. User posts don’t just present a pretty picture (although that’s part of it!). They are about participating in a collective celebration of a rare, shared organism. It’s not the time or place to post an AI-generated image.

The community is still sorting through some awkward questions about AI, such as what it does in photography and the ethics of training it on the Internet’s collected works of artists, writers, musicians, and photographers. Until the dust settles on such debates, spaces like Meta’s will continue to miss the mark.