TL:DR – Glasgow Council Approves Huge AI Mural Featuring American Bald Eagles | UK News
- Glasgow City Council has approved an AI-generated mural featuring distorted animals and machinery to be painted on a city centre wall.
- The mural, depicting bald eagles and human-eyed Highland cows, received backlash on social media for its unsettling imagery.
- Critics argue that local artists could create superior works, with MP Paul Sweeney calling for a real artist instead.
- Proposer Derek Paterson stated the design isn’t final and will ultimately celebrate Scotland’s heritage and modern energy landscape.
Massive AI-generated mural with American bald eagles approved by Glasgow council | News UK
Art is subjective, we suppose (Picture: Glasgow City Council)
The word ‘Scotland’ brings to mind the country’s famous American bald eagles, cows with half-melted faces and wonky wind turbines.
Well, that’s what Scotland is, according to an AI-generated mural that Glasgow City Council planners just signed off.
Application papers seen by various news outlets say the ‘tasteful’ image will be painted on an ‘ugly’ wall in the city centre this summer.
The four-story-tall mural (Picture: Glasgow City Council)
A preliminary design for the artwork, which UK News found was largely fabricated using AI, shows a rail worker gesturing and a steam locomotive.
Honour the knight Sir William Wallace
Buildings that resemble the Wallace Monument, a tower built to honour the knight Sir William Wallace, are also visible on the hilltop. We think.
But to the horror of Scottish social media users, the mock-up includes eagles with mangled faces.
Scotland is home to white-tailed eagles, but the birds depicted on the mural do not have white tails. Or eyes, for that matter.
Highland cows with human-like eyes – again, if any eyes at all – are grazing on the field in the lower half of the mural.
One of the birds appears to be an American bald eagle (Picture: Glasgow City Council)
One of the Highland cows does not have eyes (Picture: Glasgow City Council)
One of the birds seems to have no face and feathers for feet (Picture: Glasgow City Council)
The four-story-high mural will be painted on a wall at 11 Elmbank Street.
For the most part, Scots described the mural in just two words: ‘AI slop.’
On X, Glasgow native James Macleod wrote: ‘If I walked into a city and saw a huge AI mural I’d think the populace had conkers for brains and lacked a soul.’
While author Ewan Morrison said the mural captures the ‘cultural slopification’ of Scotland.
The mural’s approval was also criticised by the city’s MP, Paul Sweeney.
He said on X: ‘A bewildering decision when Glasgow has some of the world’s top street artists who would create something far better for a small fee.
‘Commission a real artist!’
Proposer Derek Paterson from Balmore Estates Limited lodged a bid to the council in June, with officials approving it last month.
Documents state that the B-listed site is part of a sandstone four-storey terraced property.
Paterson said that the mural will celebrate Scotland’s heritage and commitment to sustainable energy.
‘The mural aims to capture the seamless integration of technology and nature that defines Scotland’s modern energy landscape, while paying homage to its natural beauty,’ his application says.
The ‘ugly wall’ the mural will be painted on (Picture: Glasgow City Council)
Amid criticism, Paterson told The National, which first reported the news, that the AI-generated image isn’t the final design.
‘The keyboard warriors should calm down and focus on what’s important in life,’ Paterson said.
He stressed that an artist will design the final mural design, which will embrace ‘all that is positive’ with Scotland.
He added: ‘The mural looks a little cluttered in my view, so there may well be less items in the final option.
‘I’m conscious you can’t please all of the people all of the time, and even then you’ll never please some people no matter what, but life is too short to worry!’
Glasgow City Council told UK News that a well-respected artist will create the final design of the mural.
How to tell if an image is AI-generated
UK News has previously spoke with tech experts who shared the tell-tale signs that an image is synthetic:
- Inspect the little details of an image: do things like facial features seem warped, or movements appear stilted and unnatural?
- Robotic writing: If it features text, the writing may be smeared, as if it were glitching. That, or it’ll appear clunkily written.
- Use reverse image search: These tools look back on most publicly available images to see if it matches up.