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Pixel Perfect: The rise of AI women
Artificial intelligence is woven into our lives, affecting everything from entertainment to careers. However, it also brings up some unsettling topics, like AI-generated women, that push us to rethink what it means to be human. As we move through this AI-driven world, it's important to focus on real-life connections and have open conversations about what these advancements mean for our society.
August 2, 2024
We all know that artificial intelligence has a grasp on society. Nothing is too sacred for the touch of AI – our entertainment, our social media feeds, and even our careers are entwined with this complex new-age concept. For many of us, the influence ends here.
But lurking in the shadows of this vastly-misunderstood technology are realms that extend beyond our wildest imaginations. Welcome to the disturbing world of AI-generated women. From porn, to deep fakes and AI girlfriends, we’ll explore this controversial can of worms below.
The shapeshifting women
So what are we dealing with when it comes to the forms and functions of AI women? The possibilities are endless, but here’s what we’re seeing come out of the woodwork so far:
AI Porn Deepfakes
AI-generated women first made their mark in the world of AI porn. Involving the creation of entirely virtual women who perform in adult-rated videos, this strange little corner of the internet (which is growing larger and larger by the year) flags all of the usual qualms and quirks surrounding porn, with a layer of deeply complex ethical considerations compacted on top. But this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Deepfakes
Here’s where it gets worse.
To understand the gravity of deepfakes and their role in AI porn, we first need to unravel this terrifying concept.
A deepfake is an artificial piece of content that creates highly realistic media using the characteristics and qualities of someone’s real-life face or voice. It can make it seem as if the person is saying or doing something they never actually did. Creepy, right?
The impact of the use of deepfakes is colossal no matter which way we turn – from movies, to media, to government. It’s all bad, and we can’t sweep it under the rug.
But the use of deepfakes in AI porn conjures up a special kind of patriarchal evil in a world that is making progress to get out of its vile grip.
AI Girlfriends
Diving deeper into the misogyny, AI girlfriends are another mind-boggling facet of AI-generated women. Designed to imitate romantic relationships, these simulations offer companionship and emotional support to users. We saw the complexities of the human-AI relationship through Joaquin Phoenix’s 2013 hit ‘Her’, but between bites of popcorn, we never understood that within a decade, this would be our confusing reality.
The sophisticated algorithms that power AI girlfriends make space for humanistic conversations, user preferences and personality traits. While they may be providing solace to lonely folk, the blurry lines between reality and artificiality is a complicated moral dilemma at best.
What are the impacts on society?
Existing as a human female has been tricky since day dot – our patriarchal society has made sure of it. But as media and technology married, its evolution has colonised our day-to-day life more and more each decade. This is without a doubt our wildest era yet.
The mainstream pressures of ‘looking the part’ and living up to unrealistic standards has been taken into a completely new realm with AI. We’re no longer dealing with the likes of Photoshop – instead, we’re battling hyper-intelligent algorithms that have no grounding in reality whatsoever.
The lines are completely blurred. Perhaps there are no lines anymore. The virtual realities we’re witnessing embody physical attributes and qualities that take body and beauty distortion to brand new heights.
And we know that regular run-of-the-mill porn does this already – so how can we even imagine the societal impact that AI porn will have? The emphasis on perfection in women is becoming more exacerbated, fuelling the misogynistic fire that we’ve been working day and night to put out.
Our insides will come up for battle, as well. While real-life folk have been fighting the impact of incels, AI-generated women are bound to affect behavioural expectations, too.
The AI girlfriend of your dreams is programmed to be agreeable, attentive and always responsive. So what does this mean for real women? Will it create a vastly skewed understanding of real-life relationships? Where the conflicts and complexities needed for organic growth are stunted?
It’s a dangerous thought, what could happen when young men and boys engage with AI-generated women. Is this sending us completely backwards?
A suite of ethical issues
And we haven’t even mentioned ethics. The use of deepfakes poses major ethical dilemmas, especially in the realm of consent and privacy. If technology has access to all of us, where do we draw the line when it comes to knowledge and control? We’ll likely see a true violation of personal autonomy if legal frameworks aren’t quickly implemented.
Grounding in reality
So what’s the solution? Well, for starters, we need a multi-faceted approach to raising our young ones to weather the storm that is AI.
We need to arm our young ones with the tools to discern between real and artificial content.
Here are some of the best ways to get started:
Scrutinise Visuals:
Look for inconsistencies in lighting, shadows, and facial movements, which can be indicators of manipulated images or videos.
Check the Source:
Verify the authenticity of the content by checking the source and looking for reputable and verified accounts.
Use Technology:
Employ tools and apps designed to detect deepfakes and digitally altered content.
Educate Yourself:
Stay informed about the latest developments in AI and digital manipulation technologies to better understand how these tools are used.
It’s also going to be more important than ever to foster and nurture our real-life communities and connections. We need to prioritise our real connections and cultivate a meaningful relationship with the reality that we’re embedded in.
At the end of the day, it’s up to us how we navigate this new world of AI. Just like we’ve witnessed with technology since its dawn, we can use our newfound developments for good or for bad. And while the rise of AI-generated women highlights the impressive capabilities of technology in the new world, we can’t go forth without actively talking to each other about what it means for our humanity.
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We respectfully acknowledge the first custodians of the land on which we live and work, the Wurrundjeri People of the Kulin Nation. We pay respects to Elders past, present and emerging and to all First Nations People. Sovereignty was never ceded and treaties were never signed.
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