When you buy a car online, you’d expect what you see to be more or less what you get. Sure, some minor cosmetic defects might be too small for the camera to pick up, but you’re still looking at undoctored photos of a real car, right? Well, not always. Over the weekend, a Bring A Trailer listing went live with a beige 1999 Cadillac DeVille. Florida-spec vinyl toupee, 81,000 miles, your average retired-well church-on-Sunday car. Normally, this wouldn’t be noteworthy, but something strange is going on in the photos.
Now, let’s preface this by saying that there are some acceptable uses of generative AI in car photography. Using generative fill to remove unwanted lamp posts in the background isn’t dissimilar to clone-stamping them out, and can produce far neater results. Digitally extending the existing sky and pavement to turn a 3:2 photo into a 9:16 photo for social media is similar to just using copy-paste to extend a solid-color static background, and doesn’t fundamentally alter the subject of the photo.
However, this photo set doesn’t appear to be altered in those ways. Instead, it’s turned into an aggravating game of spot-the-difference, to the point where you would second-guess whether this Cadillac exists in anything close to its presented state.
Right out of the gate, we’re off to a rough start with a garbled licence plate. The photo above has been cropped in, but otherwise is identical to the one in the listing. While messed-up text is a hallmark of AI-generated imagery, modern phones have also been known to turn legible text into gibberish characters through photo processing. However, other stuff also seems fishy.
Here’s a photo of an actual late-’90s DeVille, and right out of the gate, there are differences. Mirrors that aren’t droopy, a very different layout of elements in the headlights, four horizontal slats in the grille rather than three, that sort of stuff. A phone camera’s image processing alone doesn’t explain these differences, and another photo of the auction DeVille makes things clearer.
That’s the correct number of horizontal grille slats and the correct headlight layout, but two main things stick out here. The first is a different style of wheel, the second is whatever’s going on with that hood ornament. It’s a little hard to tell without zooming in, but that’s not a Cadillac crest.
Around back, those aren’t DeVille tail lights, the wheels are different from the ones in both front three-quarter shots, that trunk emblem is clearly incorrect, and what’s going on with that licence plate?
Moving to the left rear three-quarter view, we get another completely different set of taillights, a different rear emblem, a new and unusual licence plate, different bumper trim, and painted lower trims. Never mind the unpainted-looking door handles, the random fender emblem, or yet another different style of alloy wheel.
There definitely appears to be some generative stuff going on here, and that’s before we get to the interior.
Hang on, is that a cobblestone floor? I know the “Top Gear” cottage-themed S-Class struck a chord, but what we’re looking at here just doesn’t seem real. The shadowing from the rear seat squab doesn’t look right, and shouldn’t there be a door threshold at the bottom edge of the picture?
Ah, yep. In this alternate angle, the carpet in the left rear footwell and, well, everything low and up-front disappears, replaced by stonework imagery. Someone’s been blatantly manipulating these photos with results that just aren’t real or representative of the actual vehicle.
In case that wasn’t enough for you, how about two column-mounted shifters and no ignition barrel – or is the stalk sprouting from it? That’s definitely carpet up front, but like, what are we doing here?
Oh, and the door frame above the mirror is just gone. Where’d it go? I don’t know, into the digital ether or something.
It didn’t take long for commenters to start piling on this listing. From “This listing is an AI trainwreck” to “What in the AI slop pics?
Some struck a more humorous tone, such as “Come on guys, we all know the 1999 DeVille is 20 feet long on the left side, 14 feet long on the right side, somewhere between 25 and 30 pavers wide, and could be ordered with the rare A-pillar delete.” Nicely done.
It took a few hours after the listing went live for Bring A Trailer to respond to initial comments, and the first communication could’ve gone over better.
Hello all,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the gallery photos. We share your concern about the authenticity of the images and are working with @seller to obtain additional images of the car. We will update the listing as soon as they’re available.
While the firm had eyes on the situation, the big question is why this was allowed to go live in the first place. Bring A Trailer director of customer experience David Duke commented on the listing after it had been withdrawn, writing:
We definitely understand the concerns raised by this situation. We want to make it clear that every listing on BaT is created by BaT staff and we are reviewing internally how these photos were missed by our team.
The legitimacy and accuracy of photos in an online auction is obviously of utmost importance and something we cannot allow to be manipulated by AI.
We very much appreciate the oversight and input of the community on this auction, which enabled us to react as quickly as possible to the photo manipulations that we missed when arranging the photo gallery. We do not think the seller was intending to purposely mislead anyone but was simply mistaken in their efforts to make the car look as appealing as possible. We certainly should have caught this before the auction went live, and for that we sincerely apologize.
A few hours later, Head of Auctions Howard Swig commented the following:
Thanks for all the comments and deserving criticism on this listing. This is clearly a huge error on our part with multiple points of failure in our process allowing this listing to make its way through our system and live on the site. Some folks may be surprised to learn that our curation, editing, and quality control processes are all very human efforts at BaT without reliance on computer algorithms or AI. The team works hard to put out accurate and vetted listings every day, but we screwed up here and will own that.
We have had a few memorable blunders over the years and I can say that more than a few of those were entirely my fault! I am also sure we will encounter more AI-related challenges in the future and that this won’t be the last mistake we make. So I hope this listing can serve as a wake up call for us to review where things went wrong and how we can prevent this from happening again.
When you’re paying a five-percent buyer’s fee, you’d expect better lot representation than you’d find on Facebook Marketplace. For a premium service, not catching these photos erodes trust and can harm an entity’s reputation. The big questions now are: What were these multiple points of failure, and what systems will Bring A Trailer implement in order to prevent this from happening again? “Multiple points of failure” suggests that multiple eyes saw these photos and rubber-stamped them. What prevented employees from taking a closer look and flagging them? I’ve reached out to Bring A Trailer and will update you should I hear back.
In a strange way, it’s a good thing that the listing photos for this DeVille were awful, because the manipulation of them was obvious. Considering how awful many AI-generated cars were just three years ago, the scarier hypothetical is: what happens if generative AI image software gets really good? If software like MidJourney, Nano Banana, and the like is eventually able to vomit up a full image gallery of a vehicle without any errors, the potential for misuse would be huge.
If the technology exists to convincingly and without any skill required remove rust, reconstruct peeling lacquer, or edit out a tear in a seat with only a few prompts, what’s to stop an unscrupulous seller from doing just that? One potential solution to that hypothetical would be for auction sites’ representatives or partners to physically inspect each vehicle, but the labor involved in that drastically changes the business model. Those people’s time is money, and so a seller fee may be required. For the rest of us buying from the normal used car classifieds, what we see in a few years’ time might not actually be a car as it exists in real life (and while a description that doesn’t represent true condition is an issue with or without AI, AI can definitely hide a lot more). I’d certainly be cross if I drove an hour to see a car with a huge scrape that wasn’t disclosed.
Top graphic images: Bring A Trailer seller; DepositPhotos.com
“However, this photo set doesn’t appear to be altered in those ways. Instead, it’s turned into an aggravating game of spot-the-difference, to the point where you would second-guess whether this Cadillac exists
in anything close to its presented state.”Doug DeMuro today;
https://media1.tenor.com/m/qzfY4tahAqUAAAAC/close-curtain.gif
Am I the only one digging the cobblestone look? Actual stones might not be practical, but a patterned carpet, I dunno, I kind of think it works with the DeVille.
David Duke is an AI that generated Howard Swig
Is that what they’re calling Grok now?
Yes, and with a simple prompt, they can convert any car into a convertible, like questionable Nissan SUVs for example.
WOW. Just… WOW.
When I lived in New Orleans and he was running for governor, there was a popular bumper sticker that said “Vote for the crook, this time it’s important”
Why even contact the seller to get additional pics? Who but a scammer would post AI photos of this boring, low-demand car that’s unlikely to get scrutinized (and probably thousands of other cars over different platforms)? Cameras are ubiquitous and less effort than using AI unless one is posting thousands of scam ads. Ban them and move on.
BAT shouldn’t be allowing any AI edited photos period.
What a surprise, another thing ruined by AI.
If BaT wants to save face, everyone involved with this should be fired or at least post their public apology and the reason why it got past them.
BaT has a long history of being very good at apologizing for serious, egregious errors, and this is another example of that.
At this point, it’s a wonder that anyone trusts their business to vet cars put up for auction at all.
Imho, it’s really imperative to inspect cars in person before buying them. I know that isn’t always possible for rare cars that might be on the other side of the country, but I would rather miss an opportunity than end up with a pile of AI slop in my driveway.
Frankly, I doubt that BaT will actually improve anything internally and wouldn’t be surprised if we see another, similar article on here in a few months.
They’re just gonna lower the pixel count to make it harder to spot. Then frame it as making the site more “mobile friendly” by using less data!
Like the opposite of the “56k, stay away” forum post titles back in the…fuck, I’m old.
I’m cool with it, so long as they accept my totally legitimate and not AI generated currency as payment.
I had multiple people vet it, so you know it’s legit. Trust me, bro.
“We used our best AI tools to prevent sellers from using their best AI tools, but it turns out both AI tools were secretly having some sort of Clanker Affair behind our backs and they failed to disclose it, per our policy. Both AI bots were earlier spotted working at a Coldplay concert, where they botched the lighting cues for Fix You, which is one of the most egregious errors in the entertainment world.”
I don’t see the hallucinations that led to this getting better in the near term. Most of the smart AI people have finally realized that you can’t just scale up a data center and make hallucinations go away. So, if someone wants to screw you over with fake or doctored imagery, they’re gonna have to do it the old fashioned way! Spend an hour in photoshop, or just steal someone else’s photos. Much easier.
This is such a huge blunder for bring the trailer and erodes being able to trust them in the future as a platform. It goes without saying but screw AI slop!
Bring Ai Trailer. maybe they will deal in car NFT’s
Non Fungible Toyotas
“ Bring A Trailer director of customer experience David Duke commented on the listing…”
Never trust David Duke to do the right thing.
hooo boy. its a wonder they dont make him go by dave. i’d skip right out and use my middle name if that were my first just to avoid any confusion.
If my last name were Duke, I would have changed my first to Bo by now. 5-year-old me would never forgive me if I didn’t.
“Why should I change? He’s the one who sucks.”
–Michael “Don’t call me Mike” Bolton
You must really love his music.
Curveball: David IS his middle name.
I saw that name too and I was like “oh, so is this what he’s doing now?”
Yeah, came here to note the same. If it’s not THAT David Duke, my condolences to the unfortunate namesake.
Formerly known as Bring A Trailer Grand Dragon of Customer Experience…
Absolutely shame on BaT for letting this get through. Several of the photos immediately looked “off” at just a glance, and I’m a Gen-Xer (the new Boomer) who is supposed to be easily fooled by this. I have to imagine much of their staff is younger than me and should have caught this.
But I wonder what the seller was attempting to gain here? If the AI generated photos are misleading in any way it’d generate a complaint and BaT may restrict the seller in the future. Not to mention that the commentariat there can be particularly harsh and often catches any kind of discrepancy. Now the seller is rightly being torn apart for their action.
No way. Gen X’s ingrained skepticism should protect us from this. We haven’t believed anything anyone has told us since Al Capone’s vault.
But more digging/exploration was needed! Come to think of it, did he ever get around to that?
Yeah, I unfortunately see younger generations more trusting of what they find on the internet (including self-styled experts with no education, experience, or merit of any note). Upbringing that pushed many of us to understand that meritocracy was a farce vs negative free-thinking effects of helicopter parenting aside, we saw the birth of the internet and its evolution until now and all the scams and nonsense that developed along with it while younger people did not.
Perhaps it actually has a radiator delete as part of an elaborate cooling system bypass, to skirt any Northstar head gasket issues.
That would also explain the modified front grill fascia.
“Multiple points of failure” suggests that multiple eyes saw these photos and rubber-stamped them.
Maybe they get 100+ submissions every hour and these looked close enough without zooming in? Especially if they aren’t familiar with Cadillacs. He owned up to it without passing the buck, I’m ok with it. And it’s just going to get worse.
They construct each ad themselves ffs. If they’re so overworked that they miss THE WHOLE RADIATOR MISSING, it really undermines their entire business model as a trustworthy seller.
What is the point of having humans do the thing if they’re not actually doing the thing? May as well have AI auto-generate the ad from submissions.
Yes! At the very least, it shows that the people supposedly vetting the ads know nothing about cars. I’d expect that those positions are at least filled with enthusiasts, but I guess not (or they’re seriously overworked, or potentially a combination of both).
Grok and Claude are working around the clock to verify the authenticity of each ad. Employees of the month!
I’m not familiar with Cadillacs either. Still pretty confident they didn’t come with cobblestone floors.
Ok I breezed the photos and definitely missed the floors. Ooof.