PhotoVogue Festival 2023: The Talks
This conversation took place on November 18th 2023 as part of the PhotoVogue Festival 2023 which centered around the theme “What Makes us Human?: Image in the Age of A.I.”
“Pretty Girls Look Like This: A.I., Photography and Racism within digital media” examines the ways in which AI driven digital photography apps force all images to become more Eurocentric and the impact this has on who gets to be seen and how. In this talk Nkonde will discuss what companies like Google are doing to combat this and why developing images that represent all people are important as the global market for digital imagery becomes more diverse.
This talk is curated by Mutale Nkonde, AI Policy Advisor and the CEO and Founder of AI for the People. As well as being a much sought after media commentator, her work can be found in Slate, the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. In 2019 Nkonde led the advocacy for the introduction of the Deep Fakes Accountability Act to the US House of Representatives which sought to mandate the use of labeling on all digital media. In 2022 she was interviewed by the Washington Post about the racism implicit in the AI driven profile development app Lensa which made all the people using it look “more white”. Since then she has continued to advocate for the need for digital media to reflect the beauty of all media and specifically within the smartphone market. AI for the People is also an advisor to the UN Business Technology Project as well as the funding community in they provide advice to Limited Partners, the groups that invest in VC funds on how to integrate ethical approaches to AI development within their investment thesis. Nkonde has held fellowships at Harvard and Stanford, is currently a policy fellow at Oxford Internet Institute and in the process of completing an MA in American Studies at Columbia University where her research focus is on the ethical use of AI.
“Pretty Girls Look Like This: A.I., Photography and Racism within digital media” is part of day 2 “Charting New Territories: The Ethical Implications of A.I. in Image Creation” of the Symposium taking place at BASE Milano on Saturday 18th November.
The event is free and everyone is welcome to attend.
The recording of this panel will be uploaded after the Festival.
Saturday 18th November - Day 2 “Picturing the Future: A.I. and the Evolution of Visual Storytelling” will also feature:
- "Generative A.I. Authorship or Authorship through Generative A.I.: The Copyright Dilemma" by Lydia Mendola
- “Blending ART + SCIENCE: A Human Approach towards the Future of Creativity” by Alessandra Sala
- "90 Miles - A.I. Reportage Illustration” by Michael Christopher Brown
- “Broken Mirror. A dystopian guide to crossing the border” by Filippo Venturi
- “Making the invisible, visible: Pictures as the most powerful force for change” by Nicki Lees
- "Envisioning Tomorrow: A.I. and the Future of Visual Narratives", Group discussion
- “What Makes Us Human?” with Paola Mieli, Paolo Benanti, and Giacomo Rizzolatti
PhotoVogue Festival is a project directed by Alessia Glaviano (Head of Global PhotoVogue) and co-curated by Francesca Marani (Senior Photo Editor, Vogue Italia), Chiara Bardelli Nonino (Editor, Writer and Curator), Daniel Rodríguez Gordillo (Content Operations Strategy Manager, Condé Nast) and Caterina De Biasio (Visual Editor, PhotoVogue)
