Suburb breakdown: reactions to 30 AI-generated Sunshine Coast ‘locals’

AI technology created 30 images of sun-kissed, good-looking humans it believes are typical of Sunshine Coast people. But does it stack up? Some residents say so.

AI-generated images of Sunshine Coast residents has caused a reaction from locals and visitors online.

Artificial intelligence has created 30 images of sun-kissed, young and good-looking humans that it believes are typical of residents of the Sunshine Coast and Noosa.

However, do the 30 images and accompanying bios that News Corp asked AI software to create really stack up?

A biography was generated for each image by ChatGPT, which was asked to write “a short description of an (average man/woman) from (suburb) Queensland”.

Sydney woman Nicole Lembke, who regularly visits the Sunshine Coast, was walking along the foreshore at Coolum Beach when the Sunshine Coast Daily showed her some of the images.

“They’re classic, they are pretty spot on from what I’ve seen,” she said.

Sydney woman Nicole Lembke, who regularly visits the Sunshine Coast, says the AI-generated images of Sunshine Coast residents were fairly accurate.

She said she uses artificial intelligence to generate images for her work in sales.

“Obviously for internal (work use) only, not for external, I think it’s pretty wild and pretty amazing but probably needs to be more regulated,” Ms Lembke said.

Meet a typical Coolum Beach man, as seen by Artificial Intelligence.

Rosemount resident Dave, who declined to give his last name, was enjoying the view of the sea at a park bench in Coolum Beach.

He said the Nambour man and woman were “a bit out” but the rest were accurate representations of “what you see around the place”.

“Nambour’s got such a mixture of people, it would be hard to get a standard for Nambour,” Dave said.

The images also generated much online discussion after the Sunshine Coast Daily posted a few of the images to its Facebook page.

Meet a typical Nambour man, as seen by Artificial Intelligence.

“The AI is definitely wrong, should be grey nomads or all retirees in these photos these days,” one commenter wrote.

‘Average’ Sunshine Coast men and women as imagined by AI

“So what it is telling us is no one on the Sunshine Coast is married and that you will need to book ahead of you want to take a walk through Noosa National Park. Oh yeah and it’s a good time to start a yoga studio,” wrote another commenter.

“Set of Home and Away” and “AI needs to go to Specsavers” were other online comments.

Originally published as Suburb breakdown: reactions to 30 AI-generated Sunshine Coast ‘locals’