Amnesty retracts AI-generated images of 2021 Colombian protests after backlash

According to a United Nations report, 44 civilians died in Colombia’s national protests of 2021

To mark the two-year anniversary of Colombia’s National Strike, Amnesty International released a few AI-generated images with captions urging police reforms in the South American nation.

Days after uploading these images, the international human rights advocacy group retracted them after facing severe criticism for undermining real-world events by showing an unrealistic portrayal of real atrocities.

According to a United Nations report, 44 civilians died from April 28 to 31 July, 2021 after the police cracked down harshly on protesters agitating against an unpopular tax reform in Colombia.

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“We are living in a highly polarised era full of fake news, which makes people question the credibility of the media. And as we know, artificial intelligence lies. What sort of credibility do you have when you start publishing images created by artificial intelligence?” Juancho Torres, a photojournalist based in Bogotá told the British newspaper The Guardian.

“I have a friend who lost an eye. Using AI images not only loses that reality, it loses the connection between journalists and people,” Torres added.

Apart from having all the AI features like warped and smooth faces, the images also got the Colombian flag wrong. The colours of the flag were in the wrong order and police uniforms were outdated.

Amnesty responded to the backlash by saying it had chosen to use the AI-generated images to protect protesters from possible state retribution.

Later, Erika Guevara Rosas, director for Americas at Amnesty, said, “We have removed the images from social media posts, as we don’t want the criticism for the use of AI-generated images to distract from the core message in support of the victims and their calls for justice in Colombia.”