AI Slops & AI Fails

AI-generated top-down image of a cutting board with a whole red onion, some sliced onion rings, a flat knife apparently under the onion, and two right hands—one holding the knife, the other the onion.
10 July 2025

Cutting Onions

This AI-generated image of someone slicing an onion seems ordinary, until one notices uncanny details. On the one hand, the knife appears to lie beneath (?) the onion rather than slicing through it. On the other (right?) hand, two right (!) hands perform the necessary tasks, one gripping the knife, the other the onion. These oddities reveal how generative AI models piece together images from countless unrelated examples while lacking a true spatial or anatomical understanding. The AI model mimics visual patterns instead of "knowing" how tools or hands work; and sometimes, such surreal results appear.