Did Tim Cook Post AI Slop in His Christmas Message Promoting 'Pluribus'?

Artist Keith Thomson is a modern (and whimsical) Edward Hopper. And Apple TV says he created the 'festive artwork' shared on X by Apple CEO Tim Cook on Christmas Eve, 'made on MacBook Pro.'

Its intentionally-off picture of milk and cookies was meant to tease the season finale of Pluribus. ('Merry Christmas Eve, Carol...' Cook had posted.)

But others were convinced that the weird image was AI-generated.

Tech blogger John Gruber was blunt. 'Tim Cook posts AI Slop in Christmas message on Twitter/X, ostensibly to promote 'Pluribus'.'

As for sloppy details, the carton is labeled both 'Whole Milk' and 'Lowfat Milk', and the 'Cow Fun Puzzle' maze is just goofily wrong. (I can't recall ever seeing a puzzle of any kind on a milk carton, because they're waxy and hard to write on. It's like a conflation of milk cartons and cereal boxes.)

Tech author Ben Kamens — who just days earlier had blogged about generating mazes with AI — said the image showed the 'specific quirks' of generative AI mazes (including the way the maze couldn't be solved, expect by going around the maze altogether). Former Google Ventures partner M.G. Siegler even wondered if AI use intentionally echoed the themes of Pluribus — e.g., the creepiness of a collective intelligence — since otherwise 'this seems far too obvious to be a mistake/blunder on Apple's part.' (Someone on Reddit pointed out that in Pluribus's dystopian world, milk plays a key role — and the open spout of the 'natural' milk's carton does touch a suspiciously-shining light on the Christmas tree...)

Slashdot contacted artist Keith Thomson to try to ascertain what happened...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.