arthistoricum.net

This article examines the evolution of AI-based image creation platforms using GANs and Text-Image procedures. It analyzes the commercial predominance of their objectives, as well as their tendency to neglect in-depth reflection on the image as a form of language, and the consequences these choices have for this form of creation. By exploring the historical development of AI, the article shows how today's platforms, despite, or because of, their ability to simulate reality in a realistic or even hyper-realistic way, are engulfed in a quest for neutrality or Disneyfication of the image, and must impose successive self-censures that limit their creative diversity that, ultimately, only perpetuate the underlying fears and prejudices of the US society from which these platforms originate. The author calls for a polysemic approach to the image, integrating aesthetic and theoretical perspectives that make Text-Image a genuine tool for reflection on the nature of the visual, comparable to what conversational AI is for oral language. In addition to a number of examples, the author offers a visual case of Text/Image analysis.