Museum targets AI in new campaign highlighting 'negative' Irish stereotypes

A popular museum has launched a new campaign to combat misleading Irish stereotypes. 

The 'Paddy A.I.rishman' campaign from EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum aims to take on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the outdated and often offensive stereotypes generated from the technology. 

It comes as a follow-up to last summer's 'This Is Not Us' campaign, within which EPIC uncovered predictive search data that showed many misleading perceptions of the Irish. 

According to EPIC, prompts such as 'Irishman' submitted to a popular AI image generator have consistently shown outdated and stereotypical images of Irishness. 

Every generated image reportedly contained references to drinking, anger, aggression, or leprechaun-like styling. 

AI generated images work by pulling data from across the internet to create what it ‘thinks’ is the most accurate representation of a user’s prompts. 

CEO at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, Aileesh Carew, said, "While being Irish cannot possibly be summed up in a single image, we were surprised to find that AI generated images of the Irish are full of outdated stereotypes.

"At EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, we know that being Irish is a celebration that extends across the globe. We hope that this campaign will inspire people to look beyond stereotypes wherever they encounter them, and create meaningful conversations about the pitfalls and potentials of AI and of course visit EPIC to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be Irish." 

Head of Exhibitions and Programmes at EPIC, Nathan Mannion, said, "Whilst it’s disappointing to see these negative stereotypes perpetuated within AI, at EPIC we know that the lived experiences of our emigrants and diaspora are far more complex and nuanced than these reductive and clichéd images – we are inventors, poets, designers, leaders and changemakers.

"Our music, literature, culture, sport, food and dance encapsulate our rich and varied heritage and connect millions of people across the globe and across generations with each other and with Ireland.”

Head of Digital Marketing Discipline at TU Dublin, Alex Gibson, said, "One of the recognised downsides of AI is the potential to reinforce biases that exist in information already published. We all need to understand that AI processes essentially trawl data that already exists, and therefore is susceptible to significant misrepresentation.

"I am not at all surprised by the findings of the EPIC team and it is a very useful illustration of the challenges AI poses, and one I plan to share with my own students.”