In his article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Roland Meyer analyzes how right-wing extremists and tech companies use generative AI to package ideological messages in familiar, seemingly harmless visual styles, e.g. in the style of Studio Ghibli. He warns of the political power of these aesthetics and criticizes the exploitative practice of using copyrighted works as training material for AI.
These are visual worlds of ruthlessness, in which
neo-colonial dreams of expansion, pseudo-historically cloaked fantasies of power, unleashed data extractivism and the cynical glorification of state violence find their common expression.
Roland Meyer
DIZH Bridge Professor for Digital Cultures and Arts (UZH/ZHdK)