Tourists left disappointed as Buckingham Palace Christmas market turns out to be AI hoax

Tourists have been flocking to Buckingham Palace for a magical royal Christmas experience, only to be left devastated on arrival.

People have been turning up to the famed royal residence after seeing a Christmas market advertised online, which has turned out to be a hoax featuring an AI-generated image.

"It was a complete waste of time," one disgruntled punter told Metro UK.

"It was dark, cold and nothing was there.

"I asked a couple of people also milling around if they were there for the market, and they said said yes but no one knew what was going on."

Others told BBC they arrived expecting lights, mulled wine and trinkets after seeing the images online, created by Artificial Intelligence, only to find an empty space.

"I'm very disappointed," one woman said.

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Another saw "the funny side of it" and went away "to find alternatives".

They're not the only ones – a number of people in the comments of the AI post, which shows little cabins surrounding the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, have also been discussing their plans to travel into central London to see this "first".

A number of unhappy people who got duped by the post tried to warn others not to bother.

"I went last night and I confirm – it is not real!," one person wrote.

It's not known if this fake news was an intentional deception or simply a misunderstanding, after Buckingham Palace announced its first ever Christmas pop-up store inside the Mews gift shop.

"The Royal Mews Christmas Shop is a pop-up shop selling Royal Collection Trust festive products within the existing Royal Mews shop space," The Royal Collection Trust said in a statement.

"There will not be a Christmas market at Buckingham Palace."

It's not the only AI Christmas calamity gripping London ahead of the holidays.

In the south-west suburb of Kingston upon Thames, a "nightmare" Christmas mural has been removed following complaints.

The massive artwork sits above several restaurants and features a snowman with human eyes and teeth, along with headless people, dogs with chicken heads, warped faces and what appears to be E.T.

"It doesn't look like a place I want to be," local resident James Crawshaw told Telegraph UK.

"It's not very festive, there's a lot of people crowded into a small space."

Crawshaw adds that hearing the image is AI-generated gives him hope for the future.

"I'm greatly relieved at how bad it is – there's a future for artists," he said.

"It would have been much nicer for some children from a local school to do it."

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