AI graphics flood feeds and split opinion

Artificial intelligence has made it possible for anyone to create promotional graphics in almost no time, but the results are dividing opinion, DR reports.

The graphics, often featuring soft edges, warm colours and elaborate visual elements, are increasingly used by associations and businesses to attract attention on social media and in public spaces.

Martin Rasmussen, chairman of the Krogsbølle-Roerslev football club KRFK on the Danish island of Funen, regularly uses ChatGPT to create graphics for posts about the club’s matches and events.

“It gives us the opportunity to make something that looks a little better, and that we would probably have had to spend a lot of time creating from scratch,” he said.

Rasmussen said AI had helped the club maintain a stronger presence on social media. He said more people were coming to the stadium because they could see that the club was active, rather than receiving only one post every six months.

But not everyone is enthusiastic about the graphics. Mikkel Nielsen from Nørre Broby on Funen said they were now difficult to avoid and that they removed something personal from the communication.

Kathrine Jakobsen from Odense said that although each image was based on a unique prompt, the results quickly began to look alike. “The same graphics and the same visual effects are being used, so things are no longer as unique. They lose value,” she said.

Victor Dyrholm Hansen, also from Odense, said AI could be a useful tool but that many people still preferred the traditional approach.

Trend researcher and ethnologist Julia Lahme said the impact of AI-generated graphics could also be questionable. People, she said, primarily wanted to interact with other people, while clear personal expressions and human creativity attracted them.

She argued that a children’s drawing could be more effective than an AI-generated pamphlet because people needed a relationship between the sender and the recipient. AI-generated material, she said, was more likely to create distance than a connection.

Rasmussen acknowledged that people might eventually grow tired of AI graphics. However, he said KRFK’s alternative was not producing any content at all, because the club’s communication was created by volunteers in their evenings and at weekends.