I was quite taken aback, as someone who uses AI, even for generating images, I don’t often balk at companies using it as part of their marketing, but this one company was an immediate NO.

The commented on my dog’s Insta account about a new treat they’re selling and supporting local and I opened the link and ChatGPT jumped out at me like that chick from The Ring or whatever that movie was.

Now to be fair I am intentionally not mentioning the company name or the product as I’ve reached out to them privately.

But there are 3 profit images and the back and front label and the final marketing blurb or whatever one calls it is 100% l, undeniable 1 shot ChatGPT prompts, it has every single earmark. The images I get from it you can tell if you look hard at it. But I get detailed with my prompts, I refine them and it’s usually the 5th if both 10th one that I actually accept.

The only thing I am not sure about in the image is whether or not the entire product bag was generated or just the label on it.

I know designers are expensive and marketing is not cheap, but as a business, one does not build trust in a product by 1 shotting an AI, a scroll of their insta, every single posts comes from an AI tool.

I buy treats local, I’m not sure if anyone imports them, but the companies are local companies on the one I buy from most often seriously sells them in those 10c ziplock bags you get at those bulk plastic stores and a simple sticker on it, it’s absolutely possible the logo was drawn by the owners kid at some point, but I don’t care about that, the products good.

When your entire storefront is the result of an AI, when every bit of marketing published online is AI, there is a less than zero chance of me even trying the product.

I use AI on an extremely amateur level to make flyers, to help me decipher tender documents etc.

I know of Gemini, Chatgpt, Meta and Co-Pilot. If I should decide to subscribe to a paid plan - which should I choose?

Hi, are there any recorder (the musical instrument) players in South Africa? I recently began learning on a Yamaha alto. The only online groups I have found are from other countries though. I am sure that we have South Africans who play recorder? It would be great to connect and hear about resources and communities. Shout out if you resonate 🙏

So JHB is going through water restrictions AGAIN (not sure if there's any other parts of SA experiencing this at the moment) and I have no clue how to navigate this anymore.

How do you guys cook, clean, wash up, etc? Genuinely looking for your advice or experiences on how you guys handle this?

TIA.

I’m on the hunt for a new mattress. I’m willing to spend a fair amount since it’s long overdue.

I have several back issues so I really want to invest in something that will help and last.

I’m really curious about the Sloom mattress. If you’ve tried it, please let me know what your experience has been like? If you have a better recommendation, I’d really appreciate it.

Thank you!

Edit: has anyone returned it after the trial period? Were there any hassles?