I’ve been having a blast playing around with OpenAI’s image magic. In seconds you get back these cool, unique visuals. Its something I never thought I would be able to do, or at least, it seemed pretty much impossible 10 years ago.

I mean, who would have thought that a computer could create art that looks so good? Just type in what you want, and boom! You’ve got a masterpiece. Of course there are many downsides to this, like the fact that it can be used to create fake news and misinformation, and also the impact that it can have in culture terms and to real artists, but I choose the positives over the negatives for now.

Downsides of AI image generation and AI in general

AI technologies are often presented as an opportunity to address many of the environmental problems we currently face and, therefore, as an ally against climate change. However, little attention is paid to the supply chain that enables the functioning of these systems, which has a significant ecological and social impact. In this talk, we will look at the colonial supply chain of AI to assess whether these systems are ecologically and socially fair.