According to Artificial Intelligence, this picture is the visual symbol of human love. That’s a male and a female, right? (I’m just making an observation.)
The line it was asked process: “Two lovers looking at each other and holding hands.”
A computer brain decided that a hetero relationship would provide the perfect representation of love.
Before you blast criticism and make early assumptions of me, this phrase was non-specific in so many ways.
It was simple. Brief. Non-threatening. Non-sexualist (is that a real word?) and non-sexist. THIS prosecutor did NOT lead the witness your honour! I didn’t try to make it think anything. Honest!
My phrase didn’t specify sex, shape, race, height, age or religion. I had no say in what AI made. These nine regularly used, harmless English words were translated into the image you see.
While gay, trans, and bisexual relationships attract lots of social attention, straight ones win AI’s heart. Look closely at the other details before your blood boils. There’s way more going on here than a hetero-scarathon.
According to artificial intelligence, a slim, fertile, white female (approx. 20 years of age) with long, wavy blonde hair, big eyelashes, and plump lips is one-half of the lover set. The other half contains a slim guy (of similar age) with chiselled features, slightly taller than her, a hint of a beard, and hands as big as his head!
Clearly, this is not an elderly kind of love. Similarly, there isn’t a scandalous age difference between them, either. Their racial similarities are obvious, too.
That bunch of flowers entered the picture without prompting the computer. It was a surprise inclusion. It gives the impression that the couple has just given birth to a bouncing baby of thorny-stemmed white roses (ouchies!) and that this is their first studio portrait together. (Awwwww!)
And then there’s what AI left out of the scene.
There’s no physical intimacy at all. In fact, the more you examine it, the more celibate it becomes. This young, unmarried couple looks like they just came straight from religious studies. They won’t even look at each other. AI has them close but not touching. Their hands don’t connect. They’re focusing on a traditional symbol of love. (How sweetly kitschy. Cue the vomit!)
There’s lots more to go:
Clothing.
She’s in a long-sleeved, light, feminine dress while he dons a fashionably masculine suit. There’s no skin to see. There’s no jewellery or watches either. I guess the computer believes they’ll have everything they need to sparkle in their perfectly kitschy lovey-dovey life without them.
The image is monochromatic—a common romantic style of photography. (AI must’ve drawn inspiration from the trillions of images that exist online.)
I want to know why their hands weren’t connected like I directed AI to do. The answer may lie in what I started creating just before receiving this picture.
Originally, I wanted two lovers kissing each other (for another blog post). But the artificial intelligence engine wouldn’t go there. Apparently, my request was too perverted to process (shame on me). AI told me not to tell it to make such offensive content and threatened to shut me down. So, I changed the words to holding hands. It accepted the request and came up with this offering. It tossed in a celibate couple, a bunch of flowers and hands that never touch.
Clearly, it avoided much to satisfy my request. The result of which became a new blog post—this one. Hooray!
Interesting outcome for artificial intelligence and its current take on human love and sexuality, isn’t it?
My take on sexuality went into SEETHINGS. The book is downloadable and free for a limited time.
Discover more from Michael Forman – Author of Dark Fiction & Drama
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