AI is becoming increasingly advanced and has made its way into the food industry through recipe-generating platforms and robot drive-thru employees. AI's influence on the food industry is evolving steadily, but there's one food trend that confuses and delights the palate.

The latest online food trend uses AI to generate images of food on platforms like Lunchbox — for example, an image of AI's version of a salad or a bear eating a salad. The platform produces images uniquely rendered by artificial intelligence, suggesting that food items that add an image see 70% more orders and 65% higher sales than restaurants that do not.

Brands have not shied away from this trend, as Papa John's asked AI to create the perfect pizza, and food magazine Bon Appétit used AI to expose the similarities among New American dishes. On TikTok, iterations of AI-generated food pics can be found by the dozens, like a Resident Evil-inspired cheesecake.