AI is transforming the art world, but is it heading in the wrong direction? Says Shaikha Rahimi
Countries differ from each other in a multitude of ways, including geography, culture, history, political systems, economies, and demographics. They also differ in terms of stereotypes, racial biases, beauty standards, and societal expectations. If we were to ask AI to personify someone from a particular country, what kind of representation, if any, could we expect?
Well, anything but accurate representation. Recently, I was browsing on TikTok and stumbled upon an interesting video on my feed. It featured AI-generated artwork that depicted football players as villains. Intrigued, I searched for more and found others that personified individuals to represent certain nationalities. However, I regretted my curiosity.
For instance, France had a woman standing next to a bunch of grapes - presumably to symbolize wine - with the Eiffel Tower in the background. Some may think, “Okay, so what's the issue?” France is not as simple as that AI interpretation, and the same applies to all countries. Such perpetuation of cultural stereotypes is not an accurate reflection of the complexity and diversity of cultures and societies.
I also came across some that were intended to represent a Persian woman and an Arab woman. As an Arab-Persian woman myself, I did not identify with those interpretations, and they did not resemble me in any way. We might underestimate the impact of AI-generated art on our personal expressions because we assume we can dissociate ourselves from the media we consume. But this can be a key factor in how some people express themselves.
In this digital age, children have access to all social media platforms and are exposed to AI-generated content. If I were a child and saw such surface-level interpretations, I would feel the instinctive pressure to conform to beauty standards and what it means to belong to a certain ethnic group.
AI systems learn from datasets that inevitably contain biased or stereotypical representations of certain groups of people, and the outputs are obviously going to be reflections of those biases. People in the technology industry need to be cautious of these new inventions and their implications on society. With great power comes great responsibility, and if we're not mindful of the consequences, this can do more harm than good.
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