I really want to hear your opinion on this. Do we need this in our lives?

I was shopping for Cat Food tonight, and I discovered something completely absolutely ridiculously nerdy and bizarre.

On the Amazon app, some products show up with a button that says Create Style Ideas.

And when you click it, Amazon offers you opportunities to place your potential purchase into an AI-generated image.

Which means that you can take your can of cat Food and place it “On a wood paneling background, on a white table, next to pet food supplies, green and orange colors.”

And you get this.

And then you can put your can of cat food on a beach with seashells. And your pack of toilet paper in a field with sheep and fireworks. And a generator in a tree with monkeys. And a retro telephone on the moon.

Watch This 10-Minute Video

If you ever want to know how I nerd out on technology, spend 10 minutes with me as I explore this bizarre feature.

Why is Amazon creating AI images of cat food?

I just don’t understand why this is a thing. I really don’t. Maybe they think you will buy more cat food if you visualize it on a rustic farmhouse kitchen table? But then why do they suggest you put a generator in a tree with monkeys?

One thought: Perhaps they’re trying to sell more products. On a few product categories, the generated images included “shop the look” dots that lead you to other products you can buy.

Where to find the Create Style Ideas feature

I have a late-model iPhone, and I updated my Amazon Shopping app three days ago to Version 23.8.2. Tonight was the first time I saw the Create Style Ideas button. I buy a lot of cat food, so I think I would have noticed it before.

I could not find the feature online. It was only in the app. I asked a few night-owl followers to check it out, and they saw it on their phones, too. I saw one thread from about a month ago on Mastodon. I also found one article talking about Project Theia, a not-yet-public Amazon initiative that will help us spend more money with Amazon.

I didn’t find consistency in the products with this feature, and I don’t know why some have it and some don’t. For example, Charmin didn’t have the ability to add toilet paper to a meadow with sheep, but Scotts did. I also noticed that items in the same category had the same prompts, such as all artificial flowers had prompts around weddings and tables.

All of the ones with the button were for products with isolated images. If a chair had a person on it and the background was removed, it might have the button. And if the isolated image had more than one main picture (such as additional mop heads with a mop), it probably wouldn’t have the feature.

I also noticed that if the product had variations (different colors, etc.), sometimes only some of the colors would have the button. For example, I couldn’t use an orange water bottle, but the black one was fine.

Where you can and can’t “Create Style Ideas”

Here are some categories where I found the feature:

• Artificial Flowers
• Cat Food
• Lamps
• Litter Boxes
• Laundry Baskets
• Towels
• Retro Phones
• Retro Radios
• Backpacks
• Water Bottles
• End Tables
• Bean Bag Chairs
• TVs
• Refrigerators
• Lawn Mowers
• Generators
• Grills
• Plant Food and Fertilizer
• Shovels
• Outdoor Furniture
• Tents

Here are some categories that had no access to the feature:

• Pants
• Baby Rattles
• Stuffed Animals
• Nerds Candy
• KitchenAid Mixers
• Soccer Balls
• Fingernail Polish
• Robes
• Purses
• Pillows
• Yoda Slippers
• Golf Clubs
• Toys
• Toilets
• Alexa Devices
• Bird Feeders
• Vacuum Cleaners
• Kiddie Pools
• Paper Towels
• Mops
• Brooms
• Patio Umbrellas
• Beds
• Sleeping Bags
• Ice Buckets

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