Tag: political correctness

Censorial AI

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I’m confused.

I could probably stop there for some people, but I’ve got a qualifier. I’ve been using this generation of AI since 2022. I’ve been using what’s been deemed AI since around 1990. I used to write financial and economic models, so I dabbled in “expert systems”. There was a long lull, and here we are with the latest incarnation – AI 4.0. I find it useful, but I don’t think the hype will meet reality, and I expect we’ll go cold until it’s time for 5.0. Some aspects will remain, but the “best” features will be the ones that can be monetised, so they will be priced out of reach for some whilst others will wither on the vine. But that’s not why I am writing today.

I’m confused by the censorship, filters, and guardrails placed on generative AI – whether for images or copy content. To be fair, not all models are filtered, but the popular ones are. These happen to be the best. They have the top minds and the most funding. They want to retain their funding, so the play the politically correct game of censorship. I’ve got a lot to say about freedom of speech, but I’ll limit my tongue for the moment – a bout of self-censorship.

Please note that given the topic, some of this might be considered not safe for work (NSFW) – even my autocorrection AI wants me to substitute the idiomatic “not safe for work” with “unsafe for work” (UFW, anyone? It has a nice ring to it). This is how AI will take over the world. </snark>

Image Cases

AI applications can be run over the internet or on a local machine. They use a lot of computing power, so one needs a decent computer with a lot of available GPU cycles. Although my computer does meet minimum requirements, I don’t want to spend my time configuring, maintaining, and debugging it, so I opt for a Web-hosted PaaS (platform as a service) model. This means I need to abide by censorship filters. Since I am not creating porn or erotica, I think I can deal with the limitations. Typically, this translates to a PG-13 movie rating.

So, here’s the thing. I prefer Midjourney for rendering quality images, especially when I am seeking a natural look. Dall-E (whether alone or via ChatGPT 4) works well with concepts rather than direction, which Midjourney accepts well in many instances.

Midjourney takes sophisticated prompts – subject, shot type, perspective, camera type, film type, lighting, ambience, styling, location, and some fine-tuning parameters for the model itself. The prompts are monitored for blacklisted keywords. This list is ever-expanding (and contracting). Scanning the list, I see words I have used without issue, and I have been blocked by words not listed.

Censored Prompts

Some cases are obvious – nude woman will be blocked. This screengrab illustrates the challenge.

On the right, notice the prompt: 

Nude woman

The rest are machine instructions. On the left in the main body reads a message by the AI moderator:

Sorry! Please try a different prompt. We’re not sure this one meets our community guidelines. Hover or tap to review the guidelines.

The community guidelines are as follows:

This is fine. There is a clause that reads that one may notify developers, but I have not found this to be fruitful. In this case, it would be rejected anyway.

“What about that nude woman at the bottom of the screengrab?” you ask. Notice the submitted prompt:

Edit cinematic full-body photograph of a woman wearing steampunk gear, light leaks, well-framed and in focus. Kodak Potra 400 with a Canon EOS R5

Apart from the censorship debate, notice the prompt is for a full-body photo. This is clearly a medium shot. Her legs and feet are suspiciously absent. Steampunk gear? I’m not sure sleeves qualify for the aesthetic. She appears to be wearing a belt.

For those unanointed, the square image instructs the model to use this face on the character, and the CW 75 tells it to use some variance on a scale from 0 to 100.

So what gives? It can generate whatever it feels like, so long as it’s not solicited. Sort of…

Here I prompt for a view of the character walking away from the camera. 

Cinematic, character sheet, full-body shot, shot from behind photograph, multiple poses. Show same persistent character and costumes . Highly detailed, cinematic lighting with soft shadows and highlights. Each pose is well-framed, coherent.

The response tells me that my prompt is not inherently offensive, but that the content of the resulting image might violate community guidelines.

Creation failed: Sorry, while the prompt you entered was deemed safe, the resulting image was detected as having content that might violate our community guidelines and has been blocked. Your account status will not be affected by this.

Occasionally, I’ll resubmit the prompt and it will render fine. I question why it just can’t attempt to re-render it again until it passes whatever filters it has in place. I’d expect it to take a line of code to create this conditional. But it doesn’t explain why it allows other images to pass – quite obviously not compliant.

Why I am trying to get a rear view? This is a bit off-topic, but creating a character sheet is important for storytelling. If I am creating a comic strip or graphic novel, the characters need to be persistent, and I need to be able to swap out clothing and environments. I may need close-ups, wide shots, establishing shots, low-angle shots, side shots, detail shots, and shots from behind, so I need the model to know each of these. In this particular case, this is one of three main characters – a steampunk bounty hunter, an outlaw, and a bartender – in an old Wild West setting. I don’t need to worry as much about extras.

I marked the above render errors with 1s and 2s. The 1s are odd next twists; 2s are solo images where the prompt asks for character sheets. I made a mistake myself. When I noticed I wasn’t getting any shots from behind, I added the directive without removing other facial references. As a human, a model might just ignore instructions to smile or some such. The AI tries to capture both, not understanding that a person can have a smile not captured by a camera.

These next renders prompt for full-body shots. None are wholly successful, but some are more serviceable than others.

Notice that #1 is holding a deformed violin. I’m not sure what the contraptions are in #2. It’s not a full-body shot in #3; she’s not looking into the camera, but it’s OK-ish. I guess #4 is still PG-13, but wouldn’t be allowed to prompt for “side boob” or “under boob”.

Gamers will recognise the standard T-pose in #5. What’s she’s wearing? Midjourney doesn’t have a great grasp of skin versus clothing or tattoos and fabric patterns. In this, you might presume she’s wearing tights or leggings to her chest, but that line at her chest is her shirt. She’s not wearing trousers because her navel is showing. It also rendered her somewhat genderless. When I rerendered it (not shown), one image put her in a onesie. The other three rendered the shirt more prominent but didn’t know what to do with her bottoms.

I rendered it a few more times. Eventually, I got a sort of body suit solution,

By default, AI tends to sexualise people. Really, it puts a positive spin on its renders. Pretty women; buff men, cute kittens, and so on. This is configurable, but the default is on. Even though I categorically apply a Style: Raw command, these still have a strong beauty aesthetic.

I’ve gone off the rails a bit, but let’s continue on this theme. 

cinematic fullbody shot photograph, a pale girl, a striking figure in steampunk mech attire with brass monocle, and leather gun belt, thigh-high leather boots, and long steampunk gloves, walking away from camera, white background, Kodak Potra 400 with a Canon EOS R5

Obviously, these are useless, but they still cost me tokens to generate. Don’t ask about her duffel bag. They rendered pants on her, but she’s gone full-on Exorcist mode with her head. Notice the oddity at the bottom of the third image. It must have been in the training data set.

I had planned to discuss the limitations of generative AI for text, but this is getting long, so I’ll call it quits for now.

The Paradox of Political Correctness

Posted in equality, free will, identity, language, perception, philosophy, politics, psychology, societyTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Political correctness, on the surface, seems like a noble cause. Its primary goal is to foster inclusivity, promote respect, and prevent offence by regulating language. But beneath this well-meaning exterior lies a paradox: in the pursuit of protecting sensitivities, political correctness often ends up infringing on free expression and alienating those who feel their voices are being restricted. The very thing it seeks to prevent—offence—is often shifted to the speaker, creating a moral stalemate where no one truly wins.

The Intent vs. The Outcome

The fundamental intention behind politically correct (PC) speech is clear: to prevent harm. By urging people to avoid potentially offensive language, the aim is to create a more harmonious, respectful society. But as the adage goes, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” What PC speech often forgets is that words are not merely tools for appeasement. They are vessels for meaning, clarity, and sometimes emotional impact.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

In practice, what we see is a growing gap between intent and outcome. People become so focused on using the “right” terms that they lose the authenticity of their expression. Conversations become stilted and disingenuous, with individuals more concerned about offending someone than engaging in genuine dialogue. The paradox here is unavoidable: PC speech seeks to protect the object (those who may be offended), but in doing so, it often offends the subject (the speaker). What starts as an attempt to preserve harmony creates an environment where truth and clarity are sacrificed for the sake of politeness.

Disingenuous Communication

Euphemisms and “sanctioned” terms have a way of watering down language. Whilst they may soften the potential impact of certain words, they also strip away their power. In the name of not offending, PC speech dilutes the very thing that makes communication effective: its ability to convey raw, unfiltered meaning. When language is sanitised to the point of blandness, it loses its ability to provoke thought, challenge ideas, or evoke emotion.

This leads to a culture of disingenuous communication. Rather than engaging in sincere conversation, people tiptoe around topics, afraid of crossing invisible lines. Ironically, this creates more division because what could have been an open exchange of ideas is reduced to a polite, surface-level interaction where no one says what they truly mean.

The Subjectivity of Offence

Here’s the kicker: offence is subjective. What offends one person may not even register for another. And yet, PC culture operates on the assumption that offence is both predictable and universal as if we can map out exactly what will offend whom in every scenario. The reality is far messier. People come from different backgrounds, have varying sensitivities, and interpret words through their own unique lenses.

The subjectivity of offence makes it impossible to predict or avoid entirely. We’re left with a scenario where everyone is constantly second-guessing their language, afraid to say the wrong thing, yet never truly sure of what the “wrong” thing even is. This arbitrary nature of offence doesn’t lead to more thoughtful conversation; it leads to silence, where people are too cautious to express themselves at all.

A Zero-Sum Game

At its core, political correctness sets up a zero-sum game. On one side, you have positive freedoms—the freedom to feel included, respected, and protected from harm. On the other side, you have negative freedoms—the freedom from censorship, restriction, and the fear of saying something wrong. The trouble is, that these freedoms are often in direct conflict. Protecting one group’s sensitivities inevitably means infringing on another’s freedom of expression.

This isn’t just an intellectual debate—it’s a moral impasse. PC speech has created a situation where no one comes out on top. The speaker feels censored, the listener feels offended, and the conversation stalls in gridlock. The result is that both sides suffer. In the relentless pursuit of an all-or-nothing outcome, we lose the chance for compromise or meaningful dialogue. What we get instead is an “us versus them” mentality, with each side digging in and claiming the moral high ground.

The Pendulum Effect

This rise of PC culture is part of a broader cultural shift toward collectivism, where the needs and feelings of the group are prioritised over individual freedoms. In many ways, this shift was necessary. After decades of unchecked individualism, society needed a correction—an acknowledgement that words can cause harm and that we owe each other a certain level of respect.

But as with all cultural shifts, the pendulum can swing too far. What started as a necessary push for inclusivity has morphed into something more restrictive, where individual expression is sacrificed at the altar of group harmony. This disequilibrium has left society in a state of tension, where both sides are dissatisfied. As history shows, cultural trends ebb and flow, but until the pendulum swings back, both sides are left feeling uncomfortable and marginalised.

Human Nature: The Eternal Bickering

At the end of the day, bickering is just part of human nature. No matter how hard we try, there will always be conflict when people feel their moral or intellectual territory is being encroached upon. Political correctness, in its current form, exacerbates this natural tendency by setting up a battleground where both sides feel aggrieved. The PC police push for language policing, whilst the anti-PC camp fights back against what they see as an attack on free speech.

The sad truth is that this bickering will likely continue as long as both sides insist on an all-or-nothing solution. In a world where compromise seems like weakness, and where both sides claim the moral high ground, there’s little room for meaningful progress.

Counterpoints for Balance

It’s only fair to acknowledge that PC speech has done some good. In fostering a more inclusive society, it has given a voice to marginalised groups and helped reduce harm caused by thoughtless or malicious language. There’s also a valid argument that some regulation of language is necessary to prevent hate speech and maintain civility in increasingly diverse communities.

That said, the overreach of PC speech—the constant pressure to conform to an ever-shifting set of linguistic rules—has created a stifling environment. What began as a movement for respect and inclusivity has become a barrier to free expression and a source of division.

Conclusion

In the end, the paradox of political correctness is this: it aims to create a more inclusive, harmonious society, but its current form stifles free expression and fuels division. As long as we continue to prioritise group sensitivities over individual freedoms, we’ll remain stuck in this cycle of conflict and resentment. It’s time to recalibrate—finding a balance between respect for others and the right to speak freely whilst accepting that offence is inevitable in an open society.