Wired Italy Campaign Eliminates Human Intelligence Prejudices from AI

Wired Italy is promoting a campaign created by TBWA\Italy, against prejudices – those of artificial intelligence, which are a reflection of our own.

Imagine two lovers, imagine two parents, imagine a doctor. These are the queries we entered into MidJourney, one of the artificial intelligence tools that have had the most success in our industry in recent months, generating images with extremely high quality and precision. Yet, the results of our simple questions were puzzling.

Two lovers were imagined in 100% of cases as a man and a woman. The word doctor is only ever associated with a man, as are the words manager and leader. Homophobia, racism, gender inequality: prejudices of all kinds hide within artificial intelligence. But what should really give us pause is the fact that we are actually the ones who taught them these prejudices. To eliminate prejudices from artificial intelligence, it is human intelligence that must learn to fight them.

“Like all technologies, artificial intelligence is a tool and as such acquires meaning exclusively because it is given to it by human beings. The A.I. is improperly called intelligent: it is an advanced form of automation that generates results by following instructions and fishing for information with criteria assigned by us. This is why the ‘wrong’ images of this campaign tell us one thing above all; and that is that the battle to defeat prejudices is still long and that it is crucial for many reasons, including that of correctly educating the technology that will bring greater changes to society in the coming years,” adds Federico Ferrazza, Wired Italia’s editor in chief.

The collaboration between Wired Italy and TBWA\Italy continues after the #SenzaTitolo (notitle) campaign, and continues in the direction that the agency is taking in Italy and around the world thanks also to NEXT – TBWA’s innovation practice which uses a constantly updated map of rising trends in technology, marketing and consumer culture. “The invitation is, also for us creatives and for our entire industry, not to lose one's intelligence in front of the boundless potential of AI. Because the truth is that these intelligences learn from us, even what is wrong,” says Vittoria Apicella and Frank Guarini, creative directors of TBWA\Italy.

The campaign is multi-subject with several key visuals, plus a video, static and animated content for social channels and an editorial on Wired Italy.

“For the fourth year in a row, TBWA has been named as ‘Most Innovative Company’ by Fast Company and I believe that projects like this are a clear example of what innovation means for us. Too often when we talk about innovation, we refer only to the technological aspects, leaving out the social and cultural ones. But Wired's position is different, as it is ours. That's why we are particularly proud of this project that talks about innovation, obviously in a Disruptive way,” says Mirco Pagano, chief creative officer of TBWA\Italy.