Yup, it's real. How did it get into production with
- a flattened back tire with central hub very off-center,
- right pedal on the left side, and very far below the cyclist's leg,
- chain routing defying common sense,
- and a disjointed left glass?
At least the socks seem to be classic low-res stitch art likely by humans...
It boggles my mind how multiple people went "Yeah, this is fine" for this trainwreck to become a reality.
It was probably more like "everything in this list of 87 things looks fine."
I read "Poorly Made in China by Paul Midler. In it, he recounts many of his stories working with manufacturers in China. In one part, he talks about a time he just drove off the highway to a random factory to see what they made. They were very accommodating and welcomed him in. They happily showed him their wares and even gave him some samples hoping to maybe get another American buyer.
They made little figurines of Santa that said Feliz Navidad. They didn't even know what it said and assumed it was English when presenting it to the author who is American. They probably got the molds from somewhere, found a supplier of raw materials, got some buyers, and went to town. At no point did they know or even care what it was they were making.
With that context, it's easy to see how this kind of thing can happen.
It got purchased, didn't it?
Zero people. The product being sold is themed socks. How do we sell more themed socks? Smash together words, generate an image, see if that sells. Yes? Great. No? Smash together words, generate an image, see if that sells. Repeat again and again.
It doesn't matter what the image is, if it sells it's successful.
Yeah, but who is dumb enough to buy a product with that slop on the box? What's the kind of person falling for this junk? I mean it's literal gutter trash.
The answer is anybody because no one is looking at the box art. People but things online all the time just to find out it's the wrong size or the wrong color or doesn't have the feature they thought.
Nobody sees this and immediately thinks AI photo. They think, I want to see the socks, which they do and buy it. Maybe they see this AI logo, but it doesn't register consciously.
Where you only read "the" once.
I read the "the" twice. Do people usually miss that?
Some people do. There are endless little language tricks that some people will catch and others won't. Similarly there are endless visual tricks that some people will catch and others won't.
If you're looking for a trick, it'll be easier to spot. Any image posted to the "Fuck AI" community is going to have people looking at it. But put this online with 20 other socks for sale or at the checkout of a store and no one (realistically almost no one) is going to catch it.
Who?!
OP's family members.
This is unrelated but you’ve made such a great analogy for evolution by natural selection.