Generative AI: a problematic illustration of the intersections of racialized gender, race, ethnicity

This paper investigates how generative AI tools such as DALL-E can create imagery which (re)produce racist, gendered and racially gendered representations of peoples. This paper gives educators insights into the affordances of using generative AI for creating illustrations and images while simultaneously warning them to exercise caution through always taking a critical and ethical stance when using generative AI. By employing a decolonial lens, I use a combination of critical visual analysis and critical race semiotics to analyze a series of 16 images produced by DALL-E to demonstrate the problematic nature of using generative AI for creating representations of people. I outline the prompts employed and then provide a qualitative analysis of the images that critiques what is generated with reference to literature. Following this, I discuss the problematic nature of how racially gendered avatars are portrayed and how these creations are underpinned by contemporary values that are racist in nature.