Earlier this month, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) took to Instagram to bring awareness to their enhanced Assurance Package, a scheme aimed to alleviate the financial stress on Singaporean families.
MOF shared an image, created by AI tools, of a family of four in a park.
Netizens did not take to the visual very well.
One netizen shared a screengrab of MOF’s post on the r/Singapore Reddit thread, with the caption: “MOF using AI in their advertisements. Ugly and filled with errors. Can you spot the errors?”
The post has since received plenty of engagement, with other netizens commenting on what made that ad look… off.
Those who have had the chance to work with AI-generated pics would know how difficult it is to create lifelike hands and feet. They usually end up looking wonky, sometimes with an extra thumb or toe.
That’s what happened here. Zoom in on the woman’s hand, and you would notice a phantom finger on her right hand.
A man in the background also has completely warped toes.
Others also pointed out the weird shape of the streetlamps in the background, as well as the figure of a young kid which they say looks like a “gremlin”.
On closer inspection, one would notice the couple’s teeth resemble a row of same-sized rectangles rather than teeth.
No surprises then that the image has drawn plenty of criticism from netizens, with a number calling it “creepy” and “horrendous”.
A popular comment likening the image to a “scam ad” was up-voted at least 1.1K times.
Many others agreed, saying that AI-generated images are usually associated with scams on social media, and so it might not be the way to promote an actual government initiative.