A Greek bell tower in Es Cubells: Iberia Express promotes Ibiza’s “charming villages” with an AI blunder

“Today on our blog we’re travelling to the prettiest and most charming corners of the island of Ibiza. We’ll show you picture-perfect little villages to explore at your own pace. Let yourself be carried away by the Mediterranean essence of Ibiza!”

That is how Iberia Express recently promoted its flights to the island in a post on X, highlighting Ibiza’s “charming villages”. It might have been a flawless piece of marketing — were it not for one small detail: the illustration, generated by artificial intelligence, does not correspond to any of the places it claims to showcase.

The image is meant to depict the Puig de Missa from an aerial perspective. However, a distinctly un-Ibizan feature has slipped in: a Greek-style bell tower.

Anyone who has visited the Greek islands will recognise those bell towers crowned with cerulean blue domes. Apparently, Ibiza has them too — at least according to Iberia Express. The rest of the image, with some imagination, could pass for a traditional Ibizan church. But the double-tiered bell tower, painted bright blue and topped with a delicate cross, bears no resemblance to the island’s architecture. Nor do the ruins visible in the background look remotely Ibizan.

The real surprise comes when trying to identify the “charming villages” in question. That is when it becomes clear that the image was not meant to portray Puig de Missa after all, but rather Es Cubells.

At that point, many locals were left scratching their heads. Es Cubells? No one at Iberia Express appears to have seen Es Cubells. Nor, it seems, has the AI.

The image is the only one in the article generated by artificial intelligence. The other villages featured — Sant Josep de sa Talaia, Sant Carles de Peralta, Santa Gertrudis de Fruitera and Santa Agnès de Corona — are shown in genuine photographs.

The AI-generated image may simply have seemed more aesthetically pleasing to someone than the real landscape, and so it was chosen as the main visual. The result, however, has left many questioning the judgement behind the decision.

For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.