![]() While the Cyrus photos were not artificially generated, their echoes in my own Lensa avatars-Lensa, after all, is meant to provide you with avatars that flatter-suggest that, despite the general public’s collective disgust at Cyrus’ nude photo, images of young, naked white girls correspond to larger cultural concepts of beauty. ![]() What was disturbing about the image at the time was the pairing of her makeup-free, almost cherubic face with the body of someone implied to have just had sex. Many were eerily reminiscent of Miley Cyrus’ 2008 photoshoot with Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair, which featured a 15-year-old Cyrus clutching a satin sheet around her bare body. Similar to my earlier tests that generated seductive looks and poses, this set produced a kind of coyness: a bare back, tousled hair, an avatar with my childlike face holding a leaf between her naked adult’s breasts. What resulted were fully nude photos of an adolescent and sometimes childlike face but a distinctly adult body. I tried again, this time with a mix of childhood photos and selfies. In other photos, the AI attached orbs to my chest that were distinct from clothing but also unlike the nude photos my other tests had produced. This was probably not a reflection of the technology’s personal ethics but of the patterns it identified in my photo perhaps it perceived my flat chest as being that of an adult man. ![]() In some instances, the AI seemed to recognize my child’s body and mercifully neglected to add breasts. I ran a few experiments: first, only BDSM and dungeon photos next, my most feminine photos under the “male” gender option later, selfies from academic conferences-all of which produced spectacularly sized breasts and full nudity. I’m desensitized enough to the horrors of technology that I decided to be my own lab rat. I’ve logged on to Twitter to see my face photoshopped onto other women’s bodies, pictures of myself and unclothed clients in session, and once even a word search comprised of my face, personal details, and research interests. Because sex work is so often presumed to be a moral failing rather than a job, our dehumanization is redundant. Because sex workers are not perceived by the general public as human or deserving of basic rights, this behavior is celebrated rather than condemned. ![]() Because I am not face-out as a sex worker, the novelty of hunting down and circulating my likeness is, for some, a sport. Having been the target of several harassment campaigns, I’ve seen my image manipulated, distorted, and distributed without my consent on multiple occasions. I’m used to feeling violated by the internet. The sexualization was also often racialized: Nearly a dozen women of color told me that Lensa whitened their skin and anglicized their features, and one woman of Asian descent told me that in the photos “where I don’t look white they literally gave me ahegao face.” Another woman who shared both the fully clothed images she uploaded and the topless results they produced-which she chose to modify with “some emojis for a lil modesty cuz omg”-told me, “I honestly felt very violated after seeing it.” I, for example, received several fully nude results despite uploading only headshots. Lensa’s terms of service instruct users to submit only appropriate content containing “no nudes” and “no kids, adults only.” And yet, many users-primarily women-have noticed that even when they upload modest photos, the app not only generates nudes but also ascribes cartoonishly sexualized features, like sultry poses and gigantic breasts, to their images. Each concern is legitimate, but less discussed are the more sinister violations inherent in the app, namely the algorithmic tendency to sexualize subjects to a degree that is not only uncomfortable but also potentially dangerous. I’ve already been lectured about the dangers of how using the app implicates us in teaching the AI, stealing from artists, and engaging in predatory data-sharing practices. Subscribe to WIRED and stay smart with more of your favorite Ideas writers.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |