The meta suggests that AI aurora photos are as good as the real thing

Meta has a suggestion for people like me who forgot to go outside and look at the northern lights on Thursday evening: just apply AI to imitation it! However, Threads users who responded to Meta’s idea, posted last night along with three AI-generated photos of Meta’s Aurora Borealis, seem to disagree.

The photos show the northern lights hovering over the Golden Gate Bridge, the city skyline and the Ferris wheel. This is clearly intended to capture the popular moment where people post their own photos of the aurora borealis from the amazing and occasional lithe show that plunged deep into to the United States on Thursday evening.

Once you get past the first few comments from people sharing their own AI-generated photos of the aurora borealis, the responses range from thoughtfully critical:

A particularly detailed review was provided by one person who claims to be an “astronaut/particle physicist and artificial intelligence scientist”:

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

Much like the Olympics ad that Google pulled, Meta’s social media team didn’t read the room. User posts don’t just present a pretty picture (though that’s certainly part of it!). They are also about participating in the collective celebration of a occasional shared experience. This is not the time or place to insert an AI-generated image.

Society is still pondering messy questions about artificial intelligence, such as its impact on photography and the ethics of training it in online collections of artists, writers, musicians and photographers. Until the dust settles from such debates, posts like Meta will continue to miss the mark.