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The surge of A.I. artwork has been phenomenal, showcasing talented artists who provide captivating visuals of Africans, creating and recreating realities beyond our wildest dreams. This innovation enables us to explore creativity and visuals in a condensed time frame, impressing us in ways traditional photography may not.
WHITE PEOPLE CLAIM GOOGLE’S GEMINI AI GENERATOR IS RACIST
Google’s AI Gemini made headlines this week after most white people deemed it racism from not producing basic images of white people. The proliferation of AI images on social media has been tremendous, despite the questionable practice of prioritizing black AI faces on Instagram Explore. A recent video featuring an alleged white nationalist named Mark Dice criticized Google’s Gemini AI image generator, which aimed to diversify visuals.
In some cases the AI generator would even produce results to little or no white people in the images, and when asked to create visuals of a white family, or a group of white males having fun, the AI function would reject producing these. Their complaints evolved to the point where over 40,000 users jumped onboard to support another AI generator called GAB AI in angst towards Gemini.
Chopped up from original video.
FOLLOW THE MONEY! THEN WHO LOSES FROM GENIMI’S EXHAGURATED DIVERSITY?
While some white nationalists, and possibly any naive person will view this as an attack on Europeans, a deeper analysis suggests potential advantages for Europeans, raising questions about who benefits financially in a seemingly free app. In a world where images of black people are freely generated, and images of white people are rejected, considering the financial implications becomes crucial.
The app might be free for us, but in a world where nothing is free, we can only do one thing, Follow the money.
The video featuring Mark initially portrayed his (white) people as victims, but upon reflection, it became evident that black people were the true victims in this scenario. AI has the potential to impact financial gains, particularly in industries like modeling and photography, where image rights and usage come with significant financial stakes.
A REAL LOOK AT WHAT IS AT STAKE OF BLACK AI IMAGES
Sometime back in 2009, whilst I was a model agent in the UK, I struck my highest-paid job as a model. It was paid 8800 pounds. Today, that will be 139,129 ghana cedis. 6 of those jobs and one can be a millionaire in Ghana cedis. Just be aware AI is capable of stripping this away.
In fact, there is a website/organization known as copytrack.com. This website seeks to hound all users of images who have not paid the rights for these images. Ie. if you write an article about Kanye West and use a random picture of him and the photographer is registered under them, they will wage legal charges against your organization.
As annoying as their antics may be, this website ensures the producers of these images are paid. So there is for sure big money behind photography, image rights and usage. This is one of many institutions that work in this manner.
There are probably well versed people who can better define the mass amounts of money in the modeling industry. However, if we move from the micro levels and think on a macro level where the majority of legally used images of black people are AI-generated, this will actually be a financial loss for those with black skin.
THE FIGHT AGAINST AI BLACK FACE IS NOT NEW….SHUDU
It was also then I recalled our support for the fight against AI-generated black beauty is not new, it is actually an old one. One that we supported but forgot we did after challenging the creation of the dark-skinned model Shudugram.
VIDEO: This Black Viral Model That Has The Internet Going Crazy On Whether She Is A Real Person?
Shortly after Shudugram got popular, FashionGHANA alongside some activists started to speak out against it.
Black People Slammed White Photographer for Creating a Fake Dark-Skinned Model
AI GENERATOR POSES A MUCH GREATER THREAT THAN SHUDU
Although, at that moment, our struggle was not simply against AI, but against the fact that a so-called supermodel is being paid based on her dark skin while merely being generated by a fat gay white man sitting on a laptop.
That was more from a personal microscopic approach, i.e., Shudu and her creator. The question at hand now is the potential erasure of the need for an entire race of people to represent themselves visually. Of course, they’re just AI images, why worry? Tomorrow, of course, it’s just an AI billboard, why worry?
Until we reach the stage of, of course, it’s just AI Afrobeat artists. Of course, it’s just AI movie stars. Of course, it’s just AI presidents, why worry; it’s about their policies. Right?
WHITE PEOPLE DON’T GET IT
Maybe Google Gemini AI is trying to help the white race instead of depriving them of AI images. Perhaps it’s steering them toward actually paying for and/or filming white couples in photography, as opposed to generating AI images for them. All while encouraging them to replace us in terms of hiring black and other non-white models for their visuals.
Shudu is not the only incidence of AI replacing black models. Even popular accessory brand TruFaceByGrace recently used AI visuals to sell it’s most recent collection.
SHOULD WE BE WORRIED
AI generated images will hit black people around the world hardest. Especially with our industry not as developed and our finances still under the margin. Whether it will be a total erasure is questionable. That is similar to the thought of porn replacing the need to real intimacy. Studies have shown it is prone to affect social desires for the opposite sex.
Similar to the 2000s, when music was moving from hard copy CDs to digital. There was a gap in the industry where corporations were uncertain about their businesses until digital music was able to be monetized and restricted on various platforms.
Black or white, we are approach and era where AI might just be the standard visuals where fashion shoots and images are represented. And maybe even possible videos. However, where would black people fall in this (possible) social revolution as far as economics goes.
A WAY FORWARD
At FashionGHANA we have been fascinated by the creations of various black AI artists. We even created a whole caegory on our website to support their works here https://www.fashionghana.com/category/african-fashion-news/fashion-news/ai/. However, our approach of supporting AI will need to be reviewed.
Exploring Urban African Masquerade Fashion: A.I. Artist Wuh Ey Unveils Dystopian Vision
The fight against AI-generated black beauty is very profound, with previous concerns raised about authenticity and representation. The potential erasure of the visual representation of an entire race through AI-generated images raises important questions about the future impact on diverse industries, from music and movies to politics. It prompts us to consider the broader implications beyond the current use of AI images.
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