REI is Mocked Over AI Image of Handlebars Protruding From Bike Seat

https://petapixel.com/2026/06/23/cycling-brand-is-mocked-over-ai-image-of-handlebars-protruding-from-bike-seat/

215 points · 43 comments · view on lemmy.world

43 Comments

FellowEnt@sh.itjust.works · 61 pts · 91d (5 replies)

As a commercial photographer I have been waiting for pushback from consumers wanting to see actual photos of the actual product they're thinking about buying. But it seems nobody gives a shit and is happy with the slop. It's maddening. Some of the shit I've seen, technical garments with product shots that hallucinate non existent features, panels in the wrong place, its bonkers. It's not even subtle details.

Sarmyth@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 91d (2 replies)

I'm surprised you would say no one gives a shit when you are, in fact, responding to a post of people giving a shit.

FellowEnt@sh.itjust.works · 20 pts · 90d

The pushback is not mainstream. At least it's not filtered through in any meaningful way to any business decisions yet. Nobody is hiring photographers when they can just hit the slop button and be done with it. I'm also convinced some are deliberately putting this shit out there purely for engagement purposes, it creates controversy and drives clicks.

Look at the fashion band Mango. They did a high-profile AI campaign, stopped shooting real models/clothes. They caught some shade but it did not affect sales, just a short term period of controversy, which management were probably were very happy with.

fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 90d

It's also less people don't give a shit anymore we don't have any power to do anything about it. I'm neither doing graphic design or do I have any say over graphic design decisions. Most people don't have any influence over anything important

chillpanzee@lemmy.ml · 9 pts · 90d

I worked in TV & film, and expert cinematographers are highly aware just how much your brain will fill in blanks and fix logical inconsistencies. I've done some consumer qual testing on video quality as well, and it's always amazed me how bad video needs to be before viewers are yanked out of the story due to quality or image problems. It might be this phenomenon more than people not giving a shit. Side note: It's one of the many reasons 3D video has failed to catch on multiple times; bad 3D is much more jarring and uncomfortable than bad 2D.

Damage@feddit.it · 4 pts · 90d

Photos on webshops' article pages have been bullshit way since before AI, if people didn't push back then, why should they now?

phoenixz@lemmy.ca · 30 pts · 91d (3 replies)

Looking at this picture for more than 10 seconds, I've already seen a dozen problems with it. This AI picture is only of those "find all the mistakes" pictures they had on the back of cereal boxes

What is that hanging under the steering bar? What's up with the chain? What's up with the brand and model names? The saddle, of course, tt the crank arms are missing, the bike has disc breaks but also time breaks, and the rear wheel rim break is floating in the air, the....

I could go on, but yeah.

This is not even an AI problem, this is a fucking lazy human being problem for not taking even 5 seconds to check the results of the image.

violentfart@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 91d

Management most likely questioning a budget for a “simple” photo and showing how easy it is to do it themselves.

I like to imagine the photographer letting it through as malicious compliance.

OwOarchist@pawb.social · 5 pts · 91d

the bike has disc breaks but also time breaks

More brakes = more stopping. That's just science.

hitmyspot@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 90d

There is only one pedal.

GrantsGhost@piefed.zip · 17 pts · 91d (1 reply)

REI has really fallen off

dadarobot@lemmy.ml · 16 pts · 91d (3 replies)

people who use ai are ao lazy, they wont even look at the output.

Sarmyth@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 91d (2 replies)

Personally, I think that's the most offensive part.You save all of this time not having to actually take the pictures or edit the pictures, and then you won't take ten seconds to like, really look at what you're about to print.

Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 89d

i've felt this for a while now, the actual tools people use are depressing but what pisses me off is how many people are just blithely okay with obvious slop regardless of source.
Whether it's programmatically scripted 3d models with a human putting in half a joule of effort reading a voiceover, or wholesale AI-generated, it's still slop and i cannot fucking believe people think it's even remotely acceptable.

SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone · -3 pts · 90d

Not the most offensive part. Bad, too, but by no means the most offensive part. If you REALLY think that, you should really check your moral compass.

Pofski@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 91d (1 reply)

the pedals are not in a line, and the spokes of the wheels. djees. There are spokes coming out of spokes.

Damage@feddit.it · 2 pts · 90d

the pedals are not in a line

there's only one pedal, truthfully

thesohoriots@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 91d (4 replies)

One of those newfangled two-way bikes? What a time to be alive.

partial_accumen@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 91d (2 replies)

Bicycle built for (a very uncomfortable) two.

FatVegan@leminal.space · 6 pts · 91d

And you have to share a crank

bluGill@fedia.io · 3 pts · 91d

NSFW. and not safe for anything other than machinist surface plate smooth trails either.

grue@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 90d
CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zone · 13 pts · 91d (2 replies)

REI has really gone off the deep end. Insane price increases, union busting, and now slop peddling.

_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 91d (1 reply)

Yeah, I used to love that place and suggest it to everyone.

They also used to take amazing care of their customers, but they stopped doing that a while ago. I miss their old return policy and how great a place they used to be for outdoors enthusiasts. Now it's barely a step above something like Dick's.

fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net · 4 pts · 90d

Did private Equity buy them out recently or something? Our reputation like that is something that can be extracted as a resource until depleted, and then they can throw the husk in the trash

phoenixz@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 91d

Goes to show that the problem with AI is not only AI, it's also that most humans are too lazy to even do a cursory check on what AI just actually did.

Anyone looking at this picture for more than 2 seconds will see the mistake, yet it went in, meaning that nobody bothered to even look at it

And there in lies the problem: AI is a tool that is confidently wrong about 10-40% of the time, depending on the engine used, so you cannot trust the output, yet people just use it as the "lazyloungertool-2000" and have it do all the work without taking a second to actually do their fucking job

It's the reason why professors doing prompt injection still works, students using AI are not only too lazy to do the work, they're even too lazy to check the work output (that they themselves had to make in the first place)

Xanthrax@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 90d (1 reply)

Lmaooo the brake that floats over the top of the back wheel. Think it's supposed to look like a rim brake:

Not only is it it floating, but for some reason, it has a bungie cord/spring/ hook attaching it to a spoke? It's supposed to look like it has disk brakes, as well.

LodeMike@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 90d

There was a typo and the engineers installed a break.

chillpanzee@lemmy.ml · 9 pts · 90d

In my head I'm thinking "They probably had 10 different people count the number of fingers on each hand, and nobody looked at the bike." But the more I look it's pretty clear that AI also did the editorial review. 'cuz nobody noticed her conjoined mono-finger or her levitating right foot. Not to mention all the shit wrong with the bike, like the extra rear brake, pedals only on the right, dislocated left brake lever, wrong spoke and spoke nipple spacing, and probably a dozen other things I'm not seeing.

mech@feddit.org · 7 pts · 91d (1 reply)

You need the additional levers on the seat, when you've mounted 4 brakes.

Damage@feddit.it · 3 pts · 90d

Braking by clenching your asscheeks is only natural, after all

Bakkoda@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 91d

Not to mention her right foot hovering in the air oddly lol

magnetosphere@fedia.io · 5 pts · 91d

And rightfully so

0ndead@infosec.pub · 5 pts · 91d (1 reply)

lol the chain

SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 90d

Which side is it on?! It's a mystery!

phoenixz@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 91d (1 reply)

Goes to show that the problem with AI is not only AI, it's also that most humans are too lazy to even do a cursory check on what AI just actually did.

Anyone looking at this picture for more than 2 seconds will see the mistake, yet it went in, meaning that nobody bothered to even look at it

And there in lies the problem: AI is a tool that is confidently wrong about 10-40% of the time, depending on the engine used, so you cannot trust the output, yet people just use it as the "lazyloungertool-2000" and have it do all the work without taking a second to actually do their fucking job

It's the reason why professors doing prompt injection still works, students using AI are not only too lazy to do the work, they're even too lazy to check the work output (that they themselves had to make in the first place)

_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 91d

There are studies that have shown the more someone relies on AI, the dumber and less capable they become.

Marthirial@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 91d

New marketing strategy: Engagement through AI hallucination rage.

pumpupthejam@piefed.social · 2 pts · 91d

What losers.

expatriado@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 91d (1 reply)

petapixel on lemmy? nice. i've been following Chris and Jordan 10+ years

56_@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 91d

This article reads like an AI(?) summary of a reddit thread itself though.

Malyca@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 90d

Add it to the list