Blog #1: Ethical Frameworks

Some thoughts on AI-Generated Images.

News Article
BBC reveals web of spammers profiting from AI Holocaust images

The article, written in late August of this year, mentions spammers who have recently created and shared AI-generated images of the holocaust on the internet. This is incredibly incredibly relevant and raises numerous ethical concerns that are raised with this. Organizations have critiqued Meta due to its compliance with AI images being spread on the platform while the company does very little to show that these are not true images. Images have included a child within a concentration camp playing a violin and a pair of lovers meeting at the boundaries of the fence.

I felt particularly drawn to this article because of recent events within the government and trying to hide specific aspects of history, particularly events and eras that might be especially difficult to learn about. I believe that is even more of a reason to learn about them, as it is the only way to learn from them and to ensure that similar events are never repeated. This article also felt especially relevant as the use of AI-generated images become more and more difficult to differentiate between real images, it is important to know what is misinformation and what is not.

Using AI-generated images without acknowledging that the images aren’t AI-generated is a major concernalone, however there are many other concerns that arise within this article, as well. Misinformation, especially around such a tragic time in history is of concern. Creating images of the holocaust can trigger survivors and their families and it hurts facebook users who simply see the images while scrolling. Facebook and Meta have done little to stop the action and while they do not support, the algorithms built in tend to reward posts with high-engagement. Further, people are making money from these images which both spread false information and hurt those already affected by the tragic events. People make a decent wage out of creating these images. The BBC article interviews Fazal Rahman, who is “enrolled in several social media content monetisation schemes.” This type of work has become his main source of income. This article may have failed to account for those who do not believe the holocaust was real, which is an increasing number among young people. It also impacts those who are just simply uneducated around the topic of WWII and the Holocaust as they may be more prone to falling for the misinformation surrounding it. While considering those it affects, it also is crucial to understand why these images are created in the first place. While it does not make it right, different perspectives should be taken into account.

As mentioned, different perspectives should be taken into account. An event can be right and wrong. It can be easy to stick to one side but it reamins crucial to consider all sides. From a virtuous framework, the organization that works to preserve the memory of the Holocaust might be doing what is considered the “Right” action. The organization is advocating for survivors and families, as well as protecting daily users of the internet from misinformation. Standing up for what you believe in takes courage and could be seen as virtuous. The “Wrong” action then would be people that are creating the images, someone that might run in the same circles as Fazal Rahman, someone who is creating hurtful images for profit and monetizing off of trauma. This is cowardly as people are hurt because of this yet the images continue to be created. From a caring framework, the activists at the organization are standing up and caring for those affected personally by the images are performing the “Right” action. Facebook and Meta, on the other hand, are performing the “Wrong” action as they are not stopping the images, or similar images, from being spread around online. From a utilitarianism framework, something that might be maximize overall good could be creating policies for corporations to stop this sort of thing from happening. Something that might cause more harm than good would be simply not doing anything, continuing to let this damaging images float across different platforms. Overall, I believe that it is hard to pick a specific side of each view that is the “correct” view. I think that

Overall, I think this exercise went well. It got me thinking about current technology problems and also combined my interest of political science and history with my interest in technology and computer science. As we as a society become more dependent on technology and as technology becomes even more interwoven into our society, it becomes that much more necessary for it to be critiqued and analyzed. Without doing so, very little would change and many people would be negatively impacted.