AI image (mis)labelling

Language Log 2026-08-02

The singularity may have arrived, but AI systems still can't label diagrams:

Of course there's lots more coverage.

According to the Guardian article,

A Reuters analysis found the image of the map included ⁠in the presentation contained an artificial intelligence watermark that signals it was made with OpenAI tools.

Similar examples have been around for a while. Some that we've covered:

"Chain of thought hallucination?", 8/9/2025 "More on GPT-5 pseudo-text in graphics", 8/24/2025 "More of GPT-5's absurd image labelling", 9/15/2025

Today's AI systems can produce impressive texts and impressive pictures, but somehow picture labelling still goes badly wrong.