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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Aisha Down

AI-generated ‘poverty porn’ fake images being used by aid agencies

AI-generated image of a girl with a black eye taken from a charity campaign against child marriage. The girl is dark skinned, wears a head covering, and the words 'something blue...' appear on the left of the image.
An AI-generated image from charity Plan International’s 2023 campaign against child marriage. The charity said it wanted to safeguard ‘the privacy and dignity of real girls’. Credit: Plan International/YouTube Illustration: Plan International/YouTube

AI-generated images of extreme poverty, children and sexual violence survivors are flooding stock photo sites and increasingly being used by leading health NGOs, according to global health professionals who have voiced concern over a new era of “poverty porn”.

“All over the place, people are using it,” said Noah Arnold, who works at Fairpicture, a Swiss-based organisation focused on promoting ethical imagery in global development. “Some are actively using AI imagery, and others, we know that they’re experimenting at least.”

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