DoorDash says it banned driver who seemingly faked a supply utilizing AI

DoorDash seems to have confirmed a viral story about a driver using an AI-generated photo to lie about making a delivery.

As reported by Nexstar, Austin resident Byrne Hobart said he experienced this very thing, writing in a post on X: “Amazing. DoorDash driver accepted the drive, immediately marked it as delivered, and submitted an AI-generated image of a DoorDash order (left) at our front door (right).”

After his post started getting attention, Hobart offered more details, acknowledging that his story would be “pretty easy” to fake. But he noted, “Someone chimed in downthread to say that the same thing happened to him, also in Austin, with the same driver display name.”

As for how the driver pulled it off, Hobart speculated they used a hacked account on a jailbroken phone, obtaining an image of his front door through a DoorDash feature that shows photos from prior deliveries.

A DoorDash spokesperson told TechCrunch, “After quickly investigating this incident, our team permanently removed the Dasher’s account and ensured the customer was made whole. We have zero tolerance for fraud and use a combination of technology and human review to detect and prevent bad actors from abusing our platform.”