Generative Artificial Intelligence and Digital Ageism: Exploring the Construction of Age and Aging by Image-Generating AI

Since 2022, the growing attention to and public accessibility of generative artificial intelligence (AI) have become essential for knowledge acquisition on digital platforms. Generative image AI is trained on large datasets but remains socially situated in the biases of its creators as well as the inherent limitations of the training data used. Existing research has pointed out that AI models display gendered and racial biases. However, the visual construction of age through generative AI models remains unexplored. This paper presents a documentary image interpretation of 200 images of aged individuals to analyze the visual construction of age across different AI models. The results show different constructions of age, ranging from an uncanny idealism to the fragility of age.