Cape Town is a city you need to see with your own eyes to understand. Sure, you can try and capture it in pictures, but even generative AI falls short. If you ask it to recreate the city, it spits out something so off that no Capey would recognise it. It’s like the AI knows the name but has no idea what makes it special.
Generative AI is a type of computer program that can create things like pictures or text. You give it a simple description, like “a dog running through a field,” and it makes a brand-new picture based on that idea. The AI looks at lots of images it has already learned from, and uses that to build a new image that matches what you asked for. It’s kind of like telling someone to draw a picture, and they use their past drawings to create something new for you.
Generative AI can get images wrong because it doesn’t truly “see” things the way we do. It learns from lots of pictures, but sometimes those pictures aren’t perfect or don’t show everything. If the AI doesn’t have enough information or mixes things up, it can create images that look weird or don’t make sense. Look what happens when AI tries to create hands.
— no context memes (@weirddalle) January 22, 2023
This is How A.I Sees Cape Town (Table Mountain Is Just a Suggestion)
We gave AI tools Leonardo and Pixlr a simple task: generate images of the city. The results looked like someone had fed Cape Town’s landmarks into a blender and hit the highest setting. What they produced defied logic, geography, and basic common sense.
1.
Here, Table Mountain is doing a weird impersonation of itself. Yep, there’s a second Table Mountain lurking behind the first. Then there’s a mishmash of what looks like Devil’s Peak and Lion’s Head—basically, they fused into a single mutant landmass. To top it off, the coastline now resembled a strange hybrid of Durban and a beach in Miami, USA. You had one job, AI!
2.
Another AI attempt at the V&A Waterfront looked like an ambitious city planner’s fever dream. Table Mountain hovered in the background, slightly skewed but still recognisable. Lion’s Head , however, had packed up and moved to Zonnebloem where it copied itself. By the way, does AI not know that we actually have freeways in Africa?
3.
Another image introduced a new landmass altogether. A mysterious hill had materialised near the Waterfront, offering a view that no Capetonian would recognise. Lion’s Head and Signal Hill had abandoned their posts and settled somewhere near Zonnebloem, while buildings in the foreground felt imported from an unknown city. Where are the iconic Disa Park towers? Where is anything that makes sense? It’s as if the AI had lost interest halfway through.
4.
We’re meant to be looking at Table Bay, but instead, the AI gives us a view from what looks like Lion’s Head, looking down at not one, but two more Lion’s Heads next to the bay. As if that wasn’t enough, in the far distance, there’s what seems to be the Twelve Apostles. Except, they’re now in Woodstock. Or Paarden Eiland. Can’t quite decide.
5.
Bo-Kaap has always had charm, but in this AI-generated reality, those famous colourful houses now have a million-rand sea view. The Twelve Apostles have parked themselves right behind them, meaning Camps Bay has been deleted from existence. Imagine the property prices! Beachfront Bo-Kaap? Someone call the estate agents.
6.
Dare to dream, AI, dare to dream. This is supposed to be the Cape Flats, and those are supposed to be RDP houses. Everything seemed… too perfect and too clean. Makes you wonder: If Apartheid had never happened, or if a different political party were running the show, would the Flats have looked like this? Who knows. But hey, look—there’s your house in the distance.
7.
Finally, the AI presented us with a version of Cape Town that can only be described as “future shock.” Wind turbines taller than Table Mountain were scattered throughout the city. Devil’s Peak, Lion’s Head, and Signal Hill look like they have been blown away by the Cape Doctor, leaving behind a lonely, awkward-looking Table Mountain. It’s like someone who shaved off their beard after years and suddenly realised their face looks weird.
One important detail is missing, though—no sign of whether Eskom has finally sorted out loadshedding. AI clearly didn’t want to commit to that level of fantasy.
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Author: Editorial Team
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