Meta has a suggestion for people like me who forgot to go outside and see the Northern Lights on Thursday night: just use AI to fake it! But Threads users who responded to Meta's idea, posted last night alongside three AI-generated images of the Aurora Borealis Meta, seem to disagree.
The images show the Northern Lights hovering over the Golden Gate Bridge, over a city skyline and over a Ferris wheel. It's clearly meant to tap into a trending moment, with people posting their own pictures of the Northern Lights from the amazing and rare display of lights that penetrated deep into the United States on Thursday evening.
Once you get past the first few comments from people sharing their own AI-generated Northern Lights images, the responses range from thoughtfully critical:
One person who says they are an “astronaut/particle physicist and AI scientist” had particularly detailed feedback:
Others shared images they claimed they took of the phenomenon:
As with the Olympics ad that Google removed, Meta's social media team failed to read the space. Users' posts don't just show a pretty picture (although that's certainly part of it!). For them, it is also about taking part in a shared celebration of a rare, shared experience. It is neither the right time nor the right place to insert an AI-generated image.
Society is still sorting out confusing questions about AI, such as what it does with photography and the ethics of training it on the works of artists, writers, musicians, and photographers collected online. Until the dust settles on these debates, posts like Meta's will continue to miss the mark.