Indigenous activist condemns ‘identity theft’ – eju.tv
While many applauded the conservation message in this way, they failed to notice that in one of her fake photographs, Nina Tapuy was imitating Nina Gualinga, a real indigenous woman.
Source: RT News
As artificial intelligence increasingly permeates everyday life, be it in the form of chatbots or news anchors, in Ecuador the use of popular technology has reached ethical limits with the creation of a virtual “influencer” named Nina Tapuy, positioned as an indigenous person. An Ecuadorian who fights for environmental protection.
The social media account has over 20,500 followers, with many admiring his appearance, the content he uploads and the ideas he expresses. However, few people noticed her striking resemblance in one of the photographs to another Nina, who, unlike her, is a real person and an indigenous person.
Nina Gualinga did not appreciate Nina Tapui’s creation. “This identity theft and racism at its most ignorant.“wrote Ecuadorian activist from the indigenous Kichwa community Sarayaku under the latest video uploaded by the “influencer.”
“We did not consent to the use of photographs of our family members or people from our city, as they do. And most likely the people behind this account They don’t need to know their names or nationalities., even worse is the story of the people in the photos they use to create this AI persona. Please close this account,” Gualinga demanded, condemning “digital colonialism.”
An indigenous woman who has devoted much effort to the real-life fight against oil exploitation in the Ecuadorian Amazon doesn’t find creating unrealistic characters like Nina Tapuy “totally cool.” “Creating a profile pretending to be an Indigenous person with an Indigenous name is make real indigenous people invisible who live and know in this territory, who face difficulties every day,” he wrote under another video.
“It’s really disrespectful and ignorant on another level. But also that there is a non-Indigenous person behind the development of AI. control indigenous narrative and representation This is a direct violation, and such actions are very, very wrong,” he explained.
Finally, Gualinga advised the authors of the controversial article to move from “marketing” to quality journalism if they truly want to do Ecuador a favor: “If they want to help the ‘environmental cause,’ This is not creating accounts using AI.But make real people visible that every day they quarrel and know the truth.