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Lies, damned lies and rave reviews: AI deceivers and food influencers
In this week’s newsletter: inside the relationship between restaurants and stars of social media; and can we stop AI from lying to us?
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 Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images
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‘A crisis of authenticity’: the truth about food influencers | Stephen Buranyi
Instagrammers have upended the British restaurant scene, and amassed followings in the millions. But has their moment already passed?
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Illustration: Alex Mellon/The Guardian
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‘If you build something vastly smarter than you, it better be on your side’: can we stop AI from deceiving us? | Snigda Poonham
We are used to the idea that our fellow humans might intentionally mislead or manipulate us, but the idea that machines can now do the same is deeply unsettling. Researchers are racing to find solutions before it’s too late.
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Inside this week’s long read
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Stephen Buranyi spent months interviewing food influencers and restaurant PRs about the dynamics of the social media restaurant ecosystem. We asked Stephen what he discovered about the new foodie superstars.
Have food influencers hastened the demise of traditional food critics? And is someone new coming for the influencers?
I wouldn’t say that influencers themselves have really hastened the demise of the critic – although social platforms have hastened the decline of the traditional media in general. Lots of people still read the critics, but many, many more people – including people who don’t read the traditional media – get their information about restaurants from influencers. It’s a bigger, parallel ecosystem. Now of course that doesn’t mean the influencer in its current form will be here for ever: there is some backlash against big, super-popular accounts for being inauthentic, and of course the tech companies that own the platforms would be happy to replace this whole messy human-centric system with AI.
Did you find evidence of worrying corruption in the relationship between restaurants and influencers?
Oh very much so. Of course, traditional critics weren’t always above being swayed by chummy relationships with restaurateurs, little freebies at the table, etc. But in general critics paid for their own meals in order to maintain a degree of independence to … criticise of course! There are almost no influencers that work this way. The whole system relies not just on free meals, but in many cases on restaurant PRs arranging the entire visit. That’s a kind of soft corruption, where it’s very hard to tell whether what you’re watching is a review, honest coverage, or essentially just advertising. And I also found evidence of some influencers taking under-the-table payments from restaurants for positive coverage.
You’ve been around the food scene for a good while. What was the most shocking thing you learned in your research?
The most shocking thing wasn’t that some influencers take payments for coverage, but that in general food and restaurant influencers don’t make very much money. For the vast majority of the thousands of influencers out there, this is simply a hobby. A few manage to get brand advertising and endorsement deals, and if you’re a million-plus follower account there are more opportunities, but it’s simply not that lucrative.
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This week’s audio long reads
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From the archive
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Andre Marriner surrounded by players during Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg, January 2022. Photograph: Michael Zemanek/REX/Shutterstock
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The impossible job: inside the world of Premier League referees | March 2023
Players, pundits and fans complain bitterly that referees are getting worse each season – but is that fair? William Ralston’s new book sprang from this story, with a wealth of insider knowledge and first-hand horror stories.
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Illustration: Jack Purling/The Guardian
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Teacher v chatbot: my journey into the classroom in the age of AI | March 2026
As a trainee teacher, Peter C Baker’s first task was to figure out whether or not to banish AI from lessons. Now New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has placed a year-long moratorium on generative AI in classrooms, teachers will have a chance to figure out what works, and what definitely doesn’t.
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What else we’ve been reading
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With a tiny team, London Centric is consistently putting out some of the best journalism in the UK. Their story about the remarkably dodgy and occasionally violent world of London’s ice-cream vans is both funny and eye-opening. David Wolf, editor |
Hannah Engler Harvey and her flatmate watched QVC tirelessly during Covid lockdowns, and the bright, sometimes nonsensical patter of its presenters became the soundtrack to their friendship. I loved the way this piece treads the line between reciting bonkers lists of catchphrases and products, and showing how “The Voices” could be comforting and bonding. Clare Longrigg, deputy editor |
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