Singapore MOF’s AI-generated ad draws flak for looking like a ‘scam’, ministry says it was a pilot test

SINGAPORE, July 31 — An online advertisement by the Ministry of Finance (MOF), which features an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated image of a family, has been lambasted by social media users.

Reddit user Deliciouswizard put up a post on r/Singapore on Monday with a screenshot of a sponsored Instagram ad by the ministry.

“MOF using AI in their advertisements. Ugly and filled with errors. Can you spot the errors?” read the post caption.

The image featured a fair-skinned family comprising two adults and two children in the foreground, with a few other people in the background.

The caption in the image reads: “Support for a lower-income couple with two young children”. “Visuals were created using AI tools”.

As of this morning, the post had attracted more than 720 upvotes and 300 comments — mostly negative — ranging from criticism of how the image looked like a “scam”, or of the use of AI in the first place.

In response to TODAY’s queries, an MOF spokesperson said that the ministry uses different visuals to accompany its social media posts to cater to different target audiences.

“We are pilot-testing the use of AI to explore a different set of visuals on top of those done by designers. We have put footnotes on our posts and visuals to maintain transparency on the source of the content,” said the spokesperson.

“We will continue to explore different tools and take in feedback to improve our products in order to better inform fellow Singaporeans about Government schemes and services.”

‘Like a scam ad’

The top comment on the MOF ad posted on Reddit was by user Brikandbones, who said it “looks like a scam ad tbh (to be honest)”.

A few other users echoed the same sentiments, saying that AI is “very associated with scam ads”.

Others took potshots at how the image turned out.

lhc987 commented that a child in the background looks like a “gremlin”, while the couple had “more teeth than alligators”.

Another user, stormydaycoffee, felt that using AI is fine as long as the output is touched up and edited before being posted.

“This looks like they just generated it and published without even checking it through, which is more to do with laziness than AI or not,” wrote the user.

Some commentators gave credit for the fact that MOF was transparent enough to label the image as AI-generated, while others took issue with the use of AI in the first place.

“What I take issue with is this mentality (of) ‘Let’s use AI to show that we’re innovative’, when there is zero need for it...” wrote gamnolia.

Others said it was an “irony” that an ad series calling for support for low-income families was generated without paying local models or photographers.

Some argued that there may be a reason for using AI in this situation.

“Nobody, not even paid, wants to be smiling for a poster declaring they are (a) low income family,” wrote cytotoxic-CD8-Tcell.

However, others said that the ad could have instead made use of stock images, a common practice in the advertising industry.

Deliciouswizard/Reddit, buwanana/RedditThe original Ministry of Finance advertisement posted by Reddit user “Deliciouswizard” (left), and the version created by user “buwanana” (right).

User creates ‘improved’ version

On Tuesday, Reddit user buwanana uploaded a series of four images as a response to MOF’s ad.

The versions showed families of different races.

The original Ministry of Finance advertisement posted by Reddit user “Deliciouswizard” (left), and the version created by user “buwanana” (right). — TODAY pic

“Hi MOF, I created these image for you using AI. It’s not that hard leh!” read the post, which had garnered more than 540 upvotes and 200 comments as of Wednesday morning.

Speaking to TODAY on Tuesday, the user — who said he is a media entrepreneur and did not give his real name or age — said that he was moved to do so as the ad “was not a good look for us”.

“I want Singapore to be at least a regional hub for AI. So I created those images hoping to steer it away from that harmful narrative, to show what AI is actually capable of today,” he said.

He added that in his day job, he has been consulted by schools to design AI courses for adult learners.

He hopes that government agencies also invest in training their staff as “there’s a ton of potential” to be realised in developing an AI-enabled workforce here.

“It’s very important for our workforce to embrace AI.”

While some netizens nitpicked parts of the images that still looked odd, others generally agreed that the new series of images was an improvement from the MOF advertisement.

This is not the first time a government ministry or agency has used AI in its publicity materials, nor is it the first time that one has gotten flak for such a move.

A cursory check on MOF’s X account shows numerous posts accompanied by AI-generated images.

Separately, a post by the @govSingapore account on Mothers’ Day also used AI-generated pictures of local dishes.

The comments and re-posts that ensued were largely negative.

“Stop using AI when you can even do that with smartphone food photography and support hawkers at the same time,” wrote one user. — TODAY