Coca-Cola embraces controversial AI image generator with new “Y3000” flavor

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Enlarge (credit: Coca-Cola)

Coca-Cola has taken a fizzy leap into the future of AI hype with the release of Coca‑Cola Y3000 Zero Sugar, a "limited-edition" beverage reportedly co-created with artificial intelligence. Its futuristic name evokes flavor in the year 3000 (still 977 years away), but its marketing relies on AI-generated imagery from 2023—courtesy of the controversial image synthesis model Stable Diffusion.

Stable Diffusion, a technology which is mentioned by name when launching the "Coca-Cola Y3000 AI Cam" mobile app, gained its ability to generate images by scraping hundreds of millions of copyrighted works found on the Internet without copyright holder permission and is currently the subject of litigation related to copyright infringement.

But there is no hint of that controversy in Coca-Cola's marketing materials, which lean heavily into today's buzzy, AI-centered tech zeitgeist.

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