Social media users wondered if an image of a Walmart self-checkout machine asking for tips was real. The poster explained that the image was generated by AI.
Many retail stores, especially grocery stores and supermarkets, utilize self-checkout machines or self-service kiosks. Many of these machines can be pre-programmed to prompt customers with tipping options, even if the customer doesn’t actually interact with the employee.
Recently, an image of a Walmart self-checkout machine allegedly asking for tips was shared on social media. People replying to the images on X, formerly known as Twitter, and Facebook asked if they were real.
question
Are these real photos of someone asking for tips at a Walmart self-checkout?
source of information
answer
No, these are not actual photos of Walmart self-checkout machines asking for tips. This is an image generated by AI.
what we found
The image of a person allegedly requesting a tip at a Walmart self-checkout counter was generated by artificial intelligence. There were many signs that the image was generated by AI, and the person who posted it admitted that it was an AI image posted as a joke.
The earliest version of the image VERIFY found online is a Nov. 8 post to X by the account @AmericaReal3. The person who posted the image responded to several people saying it was a joke and confirmed that the image was created using AI.
Some details in both images show signs of AI generation. For example, most of the words in both images are distorted or gibberish. In one of his photos, the Walmart logo says “Walmairt” and has an extra chunk inside the letter M.
The Mozilla Foundation, part of the organization that owns the Firefox web browser, says garbled or unintelligible text is common in AI-generated images.
Apart from the text, another sign that the image was generated by AI are the objects in the background. The background includes nonsensical signs, a stack of what vaguely looks like money, and several shelf items that are vague and bleed into each other.
Another sign that these are AI-generated images is that both images in X’s post appear on the page ” Weird AI Generations” reposted on Facebook. The page’s self-description box says “Image generated by AI.”
Walmart did not respond to VERIFY’s request for comment by the time of publication.