A Reddit user recently took it upon himself to create new Haribo-style gummy animals with Midjourney. u/logical_haze says he wants to end the "bear monopoly."
After the post caused a stir on the official Midjourney forum and received a lot of positive feedback, the original poster contacted Haribo directly with his creations.
Haribo takes "a closer look"
And the response is more hopeful than he probably expected. Some even note that it might be AI-generated itself.
Thank you so much for reaching out and sharing your incredible AI-generated creations with us! We are genuinely impressed by your innovation and creativity in crafting these items.
It's fantastic to hear that your creations have been receiving such positive feedback and capturing the attention of many.
We are excited to take a closer look at the three attachments you've shared and explore the additional designs you've mentioned in the link.
Thank you once again for sharing your remarkable creations with us.
Have a happy day !
Warm regards,
Your HARIBO Team
The answer neither confirms nor denies that Haribo is looking to AI for inspiration for its next gummi bears, and also leaves the most glaring question unanswered: Would such detailed gummies even be possible?
Difficult molds
That's because implementing the design sketches could prove difficult. Reddit user u/Knowsence claims to have worked in the wine gum industry: The designs are beautiful, but making the necessary molds is complicated, the user said. Others agreed that the details shown, especially the peacock and crocodile, would be difficult to mold into gummy animals.
If Haribo wants to afford this experiment, it could be a clever marketing stunt. After all, the integration of AI into product development has made headlines again and again in recent months, for example with an AI-brewed beer. The risk that the AI product won't meet Haribo's quality standards is probably manageable if it's just a matter of form and not taste.
