Critical Data & AI Lecture Series #9. AI-Documenting War

A Mixed-Method Analysis of AI-Generated Photorealistic Images from Adobe Stock

Brown bag lunch seminar with a presentation by Chiara Spaggiari. This event is part of the Critical Data and AI Lecture Series. 

Bring your lunch. Coffee and tea will be served.

Abstract

I present an overview of an ongoing study (in collaboration with prof. Stefano Brilli, Laura Gemini, Luca Rossi) on Adobe Stock’s controversial sale of AI-generated images depicting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict following the outbreak of war on October 7th, 2023. The case examines the interplay between photojournalism and AI-generated photorealistic imagery, particularly within the context of stock image platforms, which are becoming increasingly influential in visual news production.

Positioned within the broader shifts of “post-photographic” and “algorithmic” visual culture, we consider AI imagery in relation to established visual standards of photojournalism. Through a qualitative analysis of news media discourse surrounding the controversy and an examination of 481 photorealistic images related to the Gaza War sold by Adobe, I would like to highlight the critics and concerns raised by the sale of AI-generated war images. Thanks to semantic clustering using VLLM, we were able to analyze and categorize the visual and thematic patterns within the 481 photorealistic AI-images, focusing on the ambiguity with traditional photojournalistic photography.

Bio

Chiara Spaggiari is a PhD candidate in Sociology of Communication and Digital Culture at the University of Urbino Carlo Bo with the supervision of Prof. Laura Gemini. She is currently a PhD visiting student at the IT University of Copenhagen with Prof. Luca Rossi.

Her research focuses on the relationship between photography, generative visual media and new media art. She holds a degree in Philosophy (BA) and in Visual Arts (MA) from the University of Bologna, where she graduated in Visual Socio-semiotics on documentary images from prison camps, examining the evolution of photographic media from World War II to Abu Ghraib.

Since 2017, she has been working in the field of contemporary art as an independent curator. In 2021, she attended the Photography School at Spazio Labò in Bologna, and in 2022, she completed the ICON Curatorial Course at FMAV–School of Advanced Education in Modena.

 

 

About the lecture series

The Critical Data and AI Lecture series is organized by Louis Ravn and Nanna Bonde Thylstrup as a joint venture between the research projects AI REUSE (DFF) and Data Loss: The Politics of Disappearance, Destruction and Dispossession in Digital Societies (DALOSS, ERC Stg).

This event is organized in collaboration with Luca Rossi (ITU) and the Views of Violence project at the University of Copenhagen.