AI settler stereotyping: Sandra De Berduccy, ‘A genealogy of stereotypes: the representation of Indigenous Peoples with generative AI’, in Andreas Rauh et al, Artificial Intelligence, Art and Indigeneity: Between Dreams and Hallucinations, University of London Press, 2026, pp. 121-133 | settler colonial studies blog

AI settler stereotyping: Sandra De Berduccy, ‘A genealogy of stereotypes: the representation of Indigenous Peoples with generative AI’, in Andreas Rauh et al, Artificial Intelligence, Art and Indigeneity: Between Dreams and Hallucinations, University of London Press, 2026, pp. 121-133

31Oct26

Excerpt: From the moment we first started generating images with Midjourney in the context of the AIAI project, we noticed that the images evidenced a great many preconceived ideas about Indigenous Peoples, representing them in ways that are over-simplified and that do not draw on the cultural specificity of the communities in question. This bias in the representation of Indigenous Peoples has its genealogy in how they have been portrayed throughout the history of photography. To analyse these recurrent forms of stereotypical representation, this chapter looks back at a selection of photographs of Indigenous Peoples that were taken in South America at the end of the nineteenth century. In this period, aspects such as the mise-enscène, the pose, the use of a background screen, as well as the alteration of cultural norms in terms of clothing and jewellery, began to impact the way we perceive Indigenous Peoples. An enlightening example is the case of photographic images of the Mapuche people which played a foundational role in the way outsiders have viewed that community. Today, we see these visual conventions reappearing in images generated by Artificial Intelligence tools like Midjourney, thus suggesting that historical bias in the representation of Indigenous Peoples is not just ongoing, but that it is being reproduced and amplified by these new generative technologies.

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