Consumers across the country are increasingly encountering artificial intelligence-generated images of food on restaurant menus and marketing materials, and many say the results are unappetizing, misleading and sparking a wave of online backlash against the growing trend.

The controversy gained fresh attention after Jill Sennett, a 37-year-old nurse in Denver, shared AI-generated menu images from a Jamaican barbecue pop-up restaurant with her 26,000 followers on X, showing meats that appeared to resemble leather belts covered in tiny beetles. The post was reshared by more than 500 people, many of whom expressed similar disgust at the images.

Sennett said the trend feels like a troubling shift in how restaurants present food to customers.

"Such an essential human experience," Sennett said of eating, adding that she views the shift toward AI-generated food imagery as "a bad cultural thing that restaurants are converting to these horrific, uncanny food images that are unappetizing."

Despite her reaction to the images, Sennett said she still ordered chicken and macaroni and cheese from the restaurant, noting it was one of her only lunch options at the time and that she had eaten there previously.

The manager of Jamaican Jerk and Barbecue Restaurant, the Denver establishment that hosted the pop-up at Sennett's hospital, confirmed he had used ChatGPT to generate the menu images rather than paying a graphic designer, a service he does use for the restaurant's permanent, bricks-and-mortar location.

"We decided we would design something that was eye-catching," the manager said, declining to give his name for publication. "Restaurant people are trying to be cost-effective."

According to a 2026 report from the National Restaurant Association, 26% of restaurant operators now use AI in some capacity to assist with marketing, inventory management, employee scheduling, menu optimization or........

© International Business Times