The word ‘Scotland’ brings to mind the country’s famous American bald eagles, cows with half-melted faces and wonky wind turbines.
Well, that’s what Scotland is, according to an AI-generated mural that Glasgow City Council planners just signed off.
Application papers seen by Metro say the ‘tasteful’ image will be painted on an ‘ugly’ wall in the city centre this summer.
A preliminary design for the artwork, which Metro found was largely fabricated using AI, shows a rail worker gesturing and a steam locomotive.
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Buildings that resemble the Wallace Monument, a tower built to honour the knight Sir William Wallace, are also visible on the hilltop. We think.
But to the horror of Scottish social media users, the mock-up includes eagles with mangled faces.
Scotland is home to white-tailed eagles, but the birds depicted on the mural do not have white tails. Or eyes, for that matter.
Highland cows with human-like eyes – again, if any eyes at all – are grazing on the field in the lower half of the mural.
The four-story-high mural will be painted on a wall at 11 Elmbank Street.
For the most part, Scots described the mural in just two words: ‘AI slop.’
On X, Glasgow native James Macleod wrote: ‘If I walked into a city and saw a huge AI mural I’d think the populace had conkers for brains and lacked a soul.’
While author Ewan Morrison said the mural captures the ‘cultural slopification’ of Scotland.
The mural’s approval was also criticised by the city’s MP, Paul Sweeney.
He said on X: ‘A bewildering decision when Glasgow has some of the world’s top street artists who would create something far better for a small fee.
‘Commission a real artist!’
Proposer Derek Paterson from Balmore Estates Limited lodged a bid to the council in June, with officials approving it last month.
Documents state that the B-listed site is part of a sandstone four-storey terraced property.
Paterson said that the mural will celebrate Scotland’s heritage and commitment to sustainable energy.
‘The mural aims to capture the seamless integration of technology and nature that defines Scotland’s modern energy landscape, while paying homage to its natural beauty,’ his application says.
Amid criticism, Paterson told The National, which first reported the news, that the AI-generated image isn’t the final design.
‘The keyboard warriors should calm down and focus on what’s important in life,’ Paterson said.
He stressed that an artist will design the final mural design, which will embrace ‘all that is positive’ with Scotland.
He added: ‘The mural looks a little cluttered in my view, so there may well be less items in the final option.
‘I’m conscious you can’t please all of the people all of the time, and even then you’ll never please some people no matter what, but life is too short to worry!’
Glasgow City Council told Metro that a well-respected artist will create the final design of the mural.
How to tell if an image is AI-generated
Metro previously spoke with tech experts who shared the tell-tale signs that an image is synthetic:
- Inspect the little details of an image: do things like facial features seem warped, or movements appear stilted and unnatural?
- Robotic writing: If it features text, the writing may be smeared, as if it were glitching. That, or it’ll appear clunkily written.
- Use reverse image search: These tools look back on most publicly available images to see if it matches up.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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