AI-generated product images mislead Chinese online shoppers
Merchants on Chinese e-commerce platforms are using AI-generated images to advertise products, presenting items as higher quality than they actually are. Consumers report receiving physical products significantly different from promotional images, with poor manufacturing quality, and some merchants deny using AI or claim good photography techniques when confronted.
What happened
Merchants on Chinese e-commerce platforms are using AI-generated images to create marketing materials for products including plushie keychains, clothing, and other items. These AI-generated images present products as higher quality, with more appealing colors, finer details, and more lifelike features than the actual goods.
When consumers receive their purchases, the physical products are significantly different from the promotional images. Reported issues include coarse and disorganized plush fur, misaligned eyes, crooked seams, wrinkled clothing, blurred prints, and misaligned embroidery. Merchants claim images are simply filtered or use good photography techniques, or deny using AI images entirely.
Reported impact
Consumers are deceived into making purchases based on misleading product representations. Some consumers waited months for pre-ordered items only to find them significantly different from advertised. A consumer in Shanghai was blocked from the store after requesting a refund.
Product detail pages often lack specifications such as materials, dimensions, and texture descriptions. The volume of consumption disputes related to product-image mismatches is rising.
Index analysis
AI-generated images over-beautify product appearance and exaggerate functional details, creating significant discrepancies between advertised and actual products. The plushie sector is identified as heavily affected, with merchants using AI images to attract customers while selling poorly manufactured goods.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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