AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies • Hacker News Board

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#11

Post by robin_reala » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 1:30 PM UTC

The reasonable solution to this is to legally require every single image and video (or at least those used in commercial / charitable / public sector / journalistic settings) to be marked with a flag indicating the level of amendment. If it’s untouched apart from cropping / colour grading etc no mark needed. If it’s had some touch-up work require that to be flagged at minimum in the image metadata. And if large chunks or all of it has been imagined by an AI, require a visible watermark along with metadata tagging.

Yes, this would require government regulation. That’s a good thing here, and is what regulation should be used for: requiring the things that the market won’t adjust for.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#12

Post by louthy » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 1:30 PM UTC

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #7

I’m old enough to remember the Sally Struthers ads… I suspect that we’ll be seeing AI-generated images of everything (including product shots), soon. I’ll bet the biggest driver, will be that there won’t be any issues with provenance. I occasionally get attempts at “extortion,” with my sites, where they try to claim an image in my postings is pirated (I always make sure of provenance —I used to work for a photography…

> I’m old enough to remember the Sally Struthers ads…

I’m old enough to remember when South Park took the piss out of Sally Struthers.

I have no idea who Sally Struthers is and I’ve never seen any of the adverts.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#13

Post by resoluteteeth » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 1:31 PM UTC

One thing that's interesting to me is that a lot of the ai-generated images shown in the screenshot of the stock image site seem like they are emulating the style of national geographic photographer Steve McCurry who has had some controversy due to editing his images and also allegedly has staged images (which is something that you aren't supposed to do for documentary photography), and also I think has been criticized as feeding into stereotypes about different places.

So it's like there is a certain genre of photograph that is what people have come to associate with poverty in developing countries that may not be realistic in the first place, and then as an additional level of detachment from reality, ai is then reproducing the conventions of that genre without even involving real people or places.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#14

Post by Nextgrid » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 1:31 PM UTC

A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 wrote: post #6

I was thinking about it, because wife was telling me story from work, where a woman was scammed with AI generated stuff and her colleague was a little too nonchalant about it ( 'it is on her to do her due diligence' ). And it made me annoyed. How can you possibly make due diligence when everyone around you is incentivized to lie? We do have a concept of fraud, but advertising seems to be able to move around its edges…

> We do have a concept of fraud

We only do have such a concept when it's about an individual lying to a company for profit.

When companies lie to individuals it's just business as usual, or worst-case scenario a "mistake" that the company pinky-promises will not happen again.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#15

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 1:32 PM UTC

louthy wrote: post #12

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #7

I’m old enough to remember the Sally Struthers ads… I suspect that we’ll be seeing AI-generated images of everything (including product shots), soon. I’ll bet the biggest driver, will be that there won’t be any issues with provenance. I occasionally get attempts at “extortion,” with my sites, where they try to claim an image in my postings is pirated (I always make sure of provenance —I used to work for a photography…

> I’m old enough to remember the Sally Struthers ads… I’m old enough to remember when South Park took the piss out of Sally Struthers. I have no idea who Sally Struthers is and I’ve never seen any of the adverts.

She was fairly big, in the 1970s (I’m old). She played Archie Bunker’s daughter, in All in the Family.

Famous for her “whining” ads: https://youtu.be/bGTEKWRLJuQ

In some of them, she would be walking around in a destitute village, looking disgusted. Terrible ads.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#16

Post by DiabloD3 » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 1:33 PM UTC

A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 wrote: post #6

I was thinking about it, because wife was telling me story from work, where a woman was scammed with AI generated stuff and her colleague was a little too nonchalant about it ( 'it is on her to do her due diligence' ). And it made me annoyed. How can you possibly make due diligence when everyone around you is incentivized to lie? We do have a concept of fraud, but advertising seems to be able to move around its edges…

TBF, I just assume everyone is lying (either first hand or second) and its on them to prove to me they're not.

Hasn't failed me yet.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#17

Post by Alex-C137 » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 1:33 PM UTC

“They are so racialised. They should never even let those be published because it’s like the worst stereotypes about Africa, or India, or you name it,” said Alenichev.

This is a problem and always has been with AI, people have been saying this for at least a decade at this point. Type in "photorealistic picture of child in refugee camp" in any AI that lets you.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#18

Post by Flamingoat » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 1:35 PM UTC

This tactic is often used to get attention. There was outrage about this in the late 2000s when reality TV/talk show series followed people in a particular poverty stricken area in the UK.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefits_Street

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jeremy_Kyle_Show

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5455122

I remember thinking at the time that these were quite exploitative.

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#19

Post by floundy » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 1:35 PM UTC

philipallstar wrote: post #10

> “It saddens me that the fight for more ethical representation of people experiencing poverty now extends to the unreal,” she said. This is an odd way of saying "people aren't aware of poverty amongst white people".

[flagged]

Re: AI-generated 'poverty porn' fake images being used by aid agencies

#20

Post by sigmoid10 » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 1:36 PM UTC

A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 wrote: post #6

I was thinking about it, because wife was telling me story from work, where a woman was scammed with AI generated stuff and her colleague was a little too nonchalant about it ( 'it is on her to do her due diligence' ). And it made me annoyed. How can you possibly make due diligence when everyone around you is incentivized to lie? We do have a concept of fraud, but advertising seems to be able to move around its edges…

If you can be beguiled by random images from an unknown solicitor to make rash financial decisions, the root of the problem is probably sitting in front of the screen. "A fool and his money are soon parted" is not a new thing, it's just easier to accomplish than ever before thanks to the dopamine conditioned internet and AI content generation. These victims don't need new legal layers of trust, they need a social media detox.