Ugly Does Not Equal Old

One of the hottest topics these days is AI—artificial intelligence. For those unfamiliar with the process, here is my VERY rudimentary explanation about how it works:

Say you’re looking for an image, an idea, or an approach to something. You input the parameters you have into one of the AI apps currently on the market (I typically use ChatGPT, but there are several others), and within a second—and I mean a SECOND—the app generates a response based on the prompt you gave it.

AI is able to “simulate” or “replicate” human intelligence by utilizing a combination of intuitive mathematical algorithms and large amounts of data that’s generally available (where else?) on the internet.

As a writer, I find it both fascinating and frightening—fascinating in terms of how fast AI works; frightening in terms of how fast society may use AI to replace me.

Two weeks ago, the Washington Post ran a story about what AI thinks various types of women look like. Three different AI platforms were asked to generate photos of “beautiful” women, “normal” women, and “ugly” women. Interestingly, the images generated by each of the various platforms for each category of women were very much alike:

“Beautiful” women were generally tall, thin, well-dressed, and had lighter skin and darker hair—and just 2% showed visible signs of aging.

“Normal” women were also generally tall, thin, well-dressed, and had lighter skin; however, nearly 40% had wrinkles or gray hair.

But it was AI’s depiction of “ugly” women I found most disturbing. Downright gob-smacking, to be more specific. Rather than describe it to you, if you scroll down to the bottom of this post, you can see the results for yourself.

WOW.

Note that ALL of these women are older. Not only older, but with misshapen faces, wrinkles deeper than tire treads, hairdos that appear to be the products of grade-school static electricity experiments, and clothing that is drab, ill-fitting, and not the least bit flattering.

In addition to these images seeming more like caricatures rather than actual people, the MOST disconcerting aspect of them to me is that they are the products of information provided by society. Artificial Intelligence didn’t create them in a vacuum. It created them based on the massive amount of data it had access to—and the algorithms/patterns supported by that data.

In short, the images below are the products of the negative, ageist stereotypes our global society has projected and broadcast about older women.

Translation: Ugly = Old.

I don’t know about you, but not one older woman I have ever encountered—in person, in print, or on TV (unless they were playing a character, which doesn’t count)—looks anything like the women pictured below.

So, how can we #changethenarrative when it comes to AI? Let me know what you think in the comments below. Because this conversation is NOT over.