At first glance, the canvases at the farmers market looked cute — until one shopper realized they were looking at a pig with five legs, or a cow whose front and back legs fused into the same foot, or even a horribly mismatched blended pair of Pokemon characters.
"I found AI art being sold at a local farmers market," they wrote on the subreddit r/Anticonsumption, calling the experience "infuriating."
"Farmers markets/local markets are meant to be exactly what their name implies: a marketplace for people that live in the local community to sell their wares," they wrote. "This particular markets was pretty small, about 20 or so stalls. So imagine my surprise when I found at least 3 of them trying to sell stuff with AI art on them."
Others had witnessed similar infuriating sights at other markets.
"I've stopped going to a lot of markets because they are slowly becoming filled with this kind of junk," one person said. "They claim they're 'handmade' items, but a lot of it is AI generated or drop shipped stuff from Ali Express. You even find stuff people buy off Shein and then claim is handmade as well."
Another pointed out, "As always, we can do our research and vet the sellers if they have an online presence that shows them working on the things they sell - but we really shouldn't have to do so much homework just to enjoy simple things like this guilt free."
The use of AI was particularly frustrating for many commenters. Aside from being impersonal and detracting from the spirit of local and handmade art, many are opposed to the technology for environmental reasons as well.
AI requires enormous mega warehouses of computer banks, operating constantly in order to train AI models and keep them running. Unsurprisingly, these warehouses have been controversial for consuming staggering amounts of power and water.
"How much electricity and water have been wasted to produce worthless garbage?" one person vented.
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Definitely 👍 OP agreed: "Seeing AI slop being sold is a new low," they lamented.
One person said, "I only to go vendors I can tell who actually made the item. Like crochet/knit vendors who are actively working on projects at their booth. Or people with food items that were homemade."
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