#AIApagamentoIndigena reflects on indigenous ethnicities erased in artificial intelligence
The ONE agency, in partnership with the company specialized in cultural heritage research, Scientia Consultoria, launches the #AIApagamentoIndigena movement that arises from the analysis that verified the artificial intelligence platform (AI in English) Midjourney does not recognize the original Brazilian peoples. Not only does it not recognize, but there is not enough digital collection for these software to identify faces and their ethnicities.
The objective is to increase the volume of digital images of indigenous peoples in Brazil so that, in the future, AI will have a real collection of indigenous peoples. The movement invites Brazilian artists, including a team of indigenous artists, to illustrate different ethnic groups, such as the Guaran Kaiow, Xet, Tupiniquim, Yanomami and many others, and thus, ONE will upload these images to AI programs.
“The response we got when looking for images of Brazilian indigenous people on AI was precisely the reflection of society’s actions: different North American and stereotyped indigenous people, who do not match our origin. And, while digital data is heading towards erasure, the The #AiApagamentoIndigena movement aims to revive the memories of indigenous peoples based on a collab with real people. The project is an invitation for anyone, artist or not, to contribute by flooding the internet with images of indigenous peoples, whether photos, drawings , illustrations, tagging them with the project hashtag #AiApagamentoIndigena and the hashtag of the ethnic group in question”, says Rodrigo Esteves, executive creative director at ONE.
If the evolution of AI is inevitable, then it becomes essential to include different ethnicities in the digital collection and in the construction of these platforms. “In Brazil, there are more than 305 indigenous ethnic groups, with different cultures and languages, but their histories and experiences have been erased, deforested, polluted, burned and violated for more than 520 years. is due to the fact that the white man is in charge of programming these systems”, explains Keylla Valena, administrative manager at Scientia Consultoria.
(Image credits: Illustration developed by @victoriacordeir0 depicting the AW people)
