Recently, India's leading food delivery platform Zomato made a significant decision: they announced a ban on the use of AI-generated food images in restaurant menus. Zomato's CEO, Deepinder Goyal, stated that this move is aimed at preserving customer trust, as the use of these AI images has led to a series of issues, such as increased customer complaints, higher refund rates, and declining restaurant ratings.
Goyal pointed out in a post that, starting now, they will encourage their restaurant partners to stop using AI-generated dish images. Zomato plans to actively begin removing AI-generated images from the platform by the end of this month and will use automation technology to detect and reject the upload of such images.
For restaurant owners who have not yet invested in real food photography, Zomato suggests they can contact the company's directory support team to arrange professional photography services. Notably, this service is offered at cost price, and Zomato does not profit from it.
In addition to the requirements for restaurants, Zomato's marketing team has also been instructed to ban the use of AI-generated food images in promotional materials. This indicates the seriousness with which Zomato regards this issue.
Although Zomato has taken a firm stance on this matter, they are still actively investing in generative AI. The company has a dedicated head of generative AI, Vaibhav Bhutani, who is working on some interesting projects, such as developing multi-agent systems to recommend food choices and enhance user engagement and experience.
Furthermore, Zomato recently introduced a "group ordering" feature, allowing users to share links with friends and family to conveniently add food to the same shopping cart, eliminating the need to pass around phones to collect everyone's orders. This feature is gradually being rolled out to all users, simplifying the process of group ordering.
Key Points:
🍔 Zomato has announced a ban on AI-generated food images in restaurant menus to maintain customer trust.
📸 Restaurant owners can contact Zomato for professional food photography services, offered without profit.
🤖 Zomato continues to actively invest in generative AI, driving the development of various new features.