PROLOGUE
Once upon a time (today), our protagonist wanted to write about the pro’s and con’s of AI in the creative industries. She offered ChatGPT a photo of herself in order to generate an AI alter ego for this Substack post. ChatGPT turned her Italian-Mexican-Irish-American face into that of a blonde-haired blue-eyed supermodel. Here’s how it unfolded…
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
EPILOGUE
As you can see from my latest work of experimental theater, when I offered corrections to the image ChatGPT generated of me, the AI went all the way in the other direction, turning me into a stunning biracial woman, along the lines of what my daughters may look like when they grow up.
Why did this happen? I have a theory.
As with anything, you get out what you put in.
83.3% of tech executives are white and men hold 73.3% of tech jobs overall. If it’s mostly white tech bros influencing AI’s input, it’s no wonder when the output reflects certain unconscious biases around race and gender – defaulting toward renderings of scantily-clad women with quintessentially European features and coloring.
My experience today offers a perfect case in point that it’s up to us, technology’s diverse array of users, to influence AI’s evolution with our own backgrounds, stories, looks, and cultural frameworks. We need to provide nuanced realism to correct for systemic biases.
Considering that a Silicon Valley tech bro could soon sit one breath away from the most powerful position in the world, the onus rests on “we, the people,” to be intentional about what we put into the system, so we get outcomes that represent us.
Tip of the Day: Don’t expect ChatGPT to do all your researching and writing for you. Think of it as the world’s fastest and most cost-efficient research assistant. Gather as many detailed nuggets of information as you can and when you share them in your prompt, do so with your own clear perspective, pointing the AI in the direction of what you want to convey. Use as much detail as possible, so the AI is simply helping you gather evidence that:
Proves the point you want to make
Structures the information into a helpful outline
Then, humanize the output, which is to say, creatively craft that information into a message that is uniquely you.