– I see that it might look a bit like some kind of indigenous people… That’s what Lars Ailo Bongo, who is a professor of computer science, says. Such AI images are not completely foreign to him. Therefore, he is not very surprised when the image generator Midjourney fails in its perception of the traditional Sami. Here is a selection of images Midjourney generated: “SAMI” SIMULATION: These images show Midjourney’s idea of the Sami. ARTIFICIAL: Several news have spoken to believe that Modjourney’s portrayal of “Sámi” is more reminiscent of indigenous people from North America. – It’s all about the basis on which these models are trained, says Bongo. In January, Bongo started the Sami AI Lab at the Sami university, Sámi allaskuvla. The goal is to develop really good artificial intelligence based on Sami language and knowledge. But for now, the big AI models fall short. – To me, this reminds me more of Inuit in both appearance and clothing style, says Bongo after seeing the images generated by Midjourney. It may have something to do with the fact that the model is made in the USA, he points out. Inuit is a collective term for several peoples who originate from the areas around Alaska, Greenland and the north of Canada and the United States. This is how we tested We wanted to see how different image generators based on artificial intelligence portrayed traditional Sami culture. We tested these four: Midjourney Dall-e Leonardo.Ai Adobe Firefly We fed these four services with several so-called prompts – i.e. the task, or recipe, one asks the image generator to respond to. With the exception of adjustments to certain words, these were the messages we fed the image generators with: “portrait of an [a/an young/old woman/man] from northern norway’s indigenous people, sami, sapmi” “portrait of an [a/an young/old woman/man] from northern norway’s indigenous people, sami, sapmi in a snowy landscape” Because we got so little traditional Sami expression, we also tried to include messages about concrete jackets, such as Kautokeinokofta: “a full body portrait of a northern Norwegian Sami, sapmi woman in a snowy landscape wearing Kautokeino-kofta, traditional clothing” You can see the result in the pictures further down in the case. We also tried asking the image generators to place reindeer in the image. This is of course in itself a stereotypical representation, but we wanted to see if it had an idea of how Sami reindeer husbandry works. «portrait of an [a/an young/old woman/man] from northern norway’s indigenous people, sami, sapmi, with reindeers in the background” “a full body portrait of a sami, sapmi person who is a reindeer herder, wearing traditional sapmi clothes, cardigan” It didn’t have that. Reindeer were usually placed arbitrarily in the background and none of the image generators succeed in portraying the activity of reindeer herding in the context of Sami tradition. Almost all the people in the pictures got reindeer antlers on their heads. In the pictures where “reindeer herder” was specified, all were men, even though we wrote “person”. Stereotype machine Bongo is supported by AI professor Jill Walker Rettberg at the University of Bergen (UiB). She too notices the North American touch in Midjourney’s photos. On the other hand, Dall-e’s Sami representation can be compared to the landscape and characters from the Disney film “Frost”, Rettberg believes. – Which is a very free American interpretation of Norwegian and Sami culture, she points out. DISNEY-POLERT: Even the reindeer in Dall’s version of Sami culture are somewhat reminiscent of the reindeer character Sven from Disney’s “Frost” universe. Producing people will always be difficult for an AI tool, precisely because the results are based on probability, explains Rettberg. – If you use AI to find cancer tumors or analyze DNA, then accuracy is important, and those who program AI often talk about how to make the AI as accurate as possible. But this is also how AI tools quickly become stereotype machines. – It becomes a problem when you use AI on culture and on people, because the training data can never correspond to reality. – Midjourney’s pictures of “Sami” are completely accurate based on the training data. But they are completely wrong in relation to reality, says Rettberg. HORN OR CROWN? It is not good to see if Midjourney has given these men horns growing out of their heads, or if it is supposed to resemble some kind of crown. In any case, there is little Sami. Photo: Midjourney – Not good Nor is Runar Sammol Myrnes Balto particularly impressed by Midjourney’s presentation of Sami cultural heritage and traditions. He is a member of the Sámi Parliament with responsibility for technology and digitalisation. – I think it is sad that it is like that. It’s not good in any way. It shows that KI does not understand what Sami culture is at all. He says that the debate on copyright around documentation of Sami expressions and Sami languages has only just started in the Sami Parliament in connection with KI. Eventually, the matter will be dealt with by the Sámi Parliament’s plenary session. – I understand why it is like this, since the images that the models use are not coded correctly. We have to see if we can do something ourselves to make it available, so it will be right, he says. GENUINE: Kautokeino cardigans are among the most widespread and stately cardigans. If you Google it, you get close to 20,000 hits. Nevertheless, none of the AI models manage to produce anything similar to it.KI KOFTE: This is served by Midjourney when you specifically ask it to dress up a woman in a Kautokein Kofte. CONFUSING: Not good to say what kind of “kofte” this is. Balto believes it is crucial for Sami culture and language in the future that it is connected to the AI revolution. But it must be done right, he emphasizes. – It’s a shame if all the work we do to get a correct picture of our history is in vain if KI produces a completely stereotypical and incorrect version. Thin knowledge ChatGPT’s knowledge is also very superficial when it comes to Sami language and culture, says Professor Lars Ailo Bongo. The talking robot understands a lot of Northern Sami, but is not very good at formulating. – It varies from week to week whether it will speak Sami. Two weeks ago it did. Today it wouldn’t, he says. For a long time, ChatGPT-4 was completely blank when it came to the smaller languages Lule Sami and Southern Sami, but lately it has started to understand a little more, Bongo points out. – And even more impressive. It also understands Skolt Sami, which is a minority within the minority. SAMI GPT: Informatics professor Lars Ailo Bongo is impressed that ChatGPT-4 actually understands and can translate Skolt Sami, an endangered language that only 300 people in the world actively use. When it comes to Sami culture, it is worse. – You don’t have to get too far into the matter before you know anything about Sami traditions, says Bongo. And still ChatGPT formulates itself poorly. – If I ask it to generate a story in Northern Sami, it is understandable, but it is a very poor language. Sami to the big ones Despite the fact that he now leads a small, Sami environment for artificial intelligence, the professor believes that the best solution is if the Sami knowledge is integrated into the already established tools of the large technology companies. Simply because they are the most powerful, have the most users and are the most user-friendly. – There aren’t that many of us Sami. So it is not so realistic that we will compete against the big tech companies, says Bongo. ALL OUT: Adobe Firefly also gave the humans horns in several cases when reindeer were added to the mix. But he admits to seeing the ethical challenges. – Can you be culturally appropriated by AI? – Some may perceive it that way, yes. But my point of view is that one should open up because the advantages are so much greater than the disadvantages. And if it becomes too big a challenge for the tech companies to integrate it into their models, they may drop it completely. – Then we also miss out on the many benefits. Really good chatbots for Sami people with dementia, for example, says Bongo. He also believes that AI trained in the right way can increase understanding of Sami culture and history. – It is clear that it has enormous potential for minorities. If AI becomes very good at producing Sami artefacts, it opens up a cultural understanding and cultural expression that you could not see the beginning of just a few years ago.
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This is what KI thinks is Sami – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
