A study designed to investigate the ability of individuals to differentiate between AI-generated and authentic food images, as well as the impact of disclosing this information on the consumer perception of the appeal of these images is reported. Two online experiments were conducted with real and AI-generated food images stretching across the unprocessed, processed, and ultra-processed food continuum. Study 1 was designed to assess the accuracy with which people could identify AI-generated food images while Study 2 explored how the disclosure of an image’s origin influenced the appeal of the depicted food. The participants in Study 1 found it very easy to recognize the AI-generated images, particularly in the case of ultra-processed foods. Notably, without disclosure, the AI-generated images were often preferred. At the same time, however, disclosing that a food image was genuine significantly boosted its appeal, whereas the revelation that it had been generated by AI mitigated this effect. These insights help to understand consumer psychology in the rapidly-evolving digital food marketing landscape, highlighting the nuanced effects of technological advancements in AI image-generation on human perception.

中文翻译：

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评估真实/人工智能生成的食物图像的视觉吸引力

据报道，一项研究旨在调查个人区分人工智能生成的食品图像和真实食品图像的能力，以及披露这些信息对消费者对这些图像吸引力的看法的影响。使用真实的和人工智能生成的食品图像进行了两项在线实验，这些图像涵盖了未加工、加工和超加工食品的连续体。研究 1 旨在评估人们识别人工智能生成的食物图像的准确性，而研究 2 则探讨图像来源的披露如何影响所描绘食物的吸引力。研究 1 的参与者发现识别人工智能生成的图像非常容易，特别是在超加工食品的情况下。值得注意的是，在没有透露的情况下，人工智能生成的图像通常是首选。然而，与此同时，披露食物图像的真实性大大提高了其吸引力，而揭露其是由人工智能生成的则减轻了这种影响。这些见解有助于了解快速发展的数字食品营销领域中的消费者心理，突显人工智能图像生成技术进步对人类感知的微妙影响。