I probably spend too much time online, but because of this I end up seeing a lot of online ads. In fact, I’ve seen so many ads that I tend to tune them out. Maybe it’s because of this tuning out behavior that advertisers have resorted to some drastic measures to try and grab our attention.

I’ve seen an increase in ads with images that look to be generated using Artificial Intelligence or AI. I guess there are plenty of reasons someone might use AI to create images for an advertisement, but the ones that have grabbed my attention all have one thing in common. They’re very, very weird. Oh, and in case you were wondering, none of them have inspired me to actually click on the ad.

To show you what I mean, I have some weird ad screenshots to share with you.

1. Weird Hyundai “Santa Fe” Ad

At first glance, this might not seem like such a weird ad. I mean you might be wondering (like I was) what would make this such a perfect car for seniors, or even why you would be shown an ad for a car that’s allegedly perfect for seniors when you’re only 48 years old.

The car pictured above looks pretty sleek and cool, but if you know anything about car makes and models, then you know that this one hundred percent is not a Hyundai Santa Fe, because as it happens the Hyundai Santa Fe is a pretty standard looking SUV. Here’s what a Hyundai Santa Fe actually looks like:

So what is the point of the Batmobile-esque sportscar pictured in the perfect car for seniors ad? Beats me.

2. Scary “Dog” Breeds

I saw this ad last week, and it certainly caught my attention, again not enough to actually click on the ad, but I admit I was a bit mesmerized looking at these vaguely dog-esque creatures. As an animal lover, I could see how someone would be tempted to click on this ad just to try and figure out what sort of breed these are. My guess is that question would never be answered by clicking on this ad. Other questions that probably won’t be answered are 1) Why are their collars mirror images of each other? 2) What’s with their eyes? and 3) Why does the image cut off before showing their feet?

As someone who has seen my share of AI generated images, I think I can answer question 3. The feet are probably not shown because they look really, really weird, much like many AI images of people that have an alarming number of fingers or just some really, really strange looking hands.

Anyway, maybe the weirdest thing about this ad is that there is no shortage of dog breed photos available from stock photography sites. They don’t even cost that much money. It seems like it would be a much better investment in then this weird AI image, but then again I guess if it was a normal photo I wouldn’t be sitting here writing about it.

3. Weirdly Eggcellent

I read recently about a family in the UK who unintentionally ate poison mushrooms after buying and consulting what turned out to be an AI-generated mushroom book, so take the above advice about intermittent fasting with a grain of salt because I can one hundred percent say those are not pictures of actual eggs. I’m sorry but they’re just so weird and disgusting looking. I mean I know at once that they’re supposed to be eggs, but yet they are so very bizarre. Again images of actual eggs and other foods are readily available on stock photo sites so why go through the trouble of having a robot generate four images of their idea of what an egg is for you?

Of course as consumers and users of social media the real danger is not the obviously AI-generated ads like these, but the stuff that actually looks real enough to trick us. So be careful out there, friends. It’s getting weird out there, and unfortunately it doesn’t always look weird enough to be obviously fake. In fact to prove this, I created two AI ads of my own – one for one of my books and one for one of my t-shirt designs. Scroll down to see them.

— Alissa

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Weekly Inspiration

What I’m Reading: Life in the Present by Liz Climo

What I’m Watching: Wicked Little Letters

What I’m Listening to: “Getchoo” – Weezer

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Find out more about my books at alissagrosso.com

Find out more about my digital art at alissacarin.com

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My apologies for the typos and such this post is almost certainly riddled with.