ABSTRACT
Generative artificial intelligence (genAI) image models have been critiqued for their biased datasets and process of embedding these biases in the resulting outputs, that can be generic and stereotypical. While stereotypes can be useful to convey meanings and make sense of what we see, they can also cause harm, due to the assumptions they communicate about specific people. The political turn in aesthetics suggests that power “revolve[s] around what is seen and what can be said about it, around who has the ability to see and the talent to speak”. If aesthetics are taken as mediatory for what is understood as self-evident, then the outputs of genAI models offer an important space for inquiry as these models are becoming more ubiquitous and frame what is normal, effectively speaking for us. But what would it take to challenge the stereotypes coming from genAI image models? This chapter investigates the power dynamics at play within generating a non-normative body for creative industries, asking who is being silenced through these genAI images, if there are viable alternatives, or if power and resistance can be found in the silence.
