 When Rona Wong an MIT student asked AI to make her LinkedIn profile more professional, it just changed her ethnicity into a white lady with blue eyes. David, this is leading a lot of people to ask the question, is AI two Eurocentric? Oh man, this is going viral right now. Some people are taking it as a joke. Some people are in the middle. Other people are more woke about it. We got to get into all the reactions, of course, our own takeaways. Long story short, Andrew Rona Wong, she used it for her LinkedIn. It turned her into what appears to be what a D1 Oregon State soccer player. I don't necessarily know if this image is way more professional than her original look, but it sparked a firestorm of comments and seems like a silly thing that has had some serious discussions come out of it. Well, this is not the first time this has popped up because it often is said like, you know, programmers or face recognition, and it recognizes why face is better because that's like who the scientists are and the programmers and all this stuff. Anyways, guys, we're going to get into this. There's a lot of comments. So please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the hot pop boys as we tackle this. All right, so let's get into the comments from the tech world. These people are more in this, Andrew. They're programming it. They're going to be leading AI and how it applies to your layman, regular person who's not about, you know, your average person in the future Andrew will use AI, but not be on the back end in terms of programming AI. Somebody said, this is why we have to be wary of handing important tasks such as teaching, hiring medicine over to AI tools. Unbiased training data is rarely ever used. It may not even exist. We end up replicating many inequities and biases that contributed to said training data. And this guy said AI stands for area and intelligence. Of course, the CEO of the program that Rona Wong used said the models aren't inscrutable like that. So it'll pick any generic thing based on the prompt. Unfortunately, they're not smart enough yet, happy to help you get a result, but it takes a bit more effort than something like chat GPT. By the way, for the record, we're quite displeased with this and hope to solve it. Oh, okay. So yeah, because I think I believe this guy is like Indian, the guy who probably owns it or founded this app. So he's kind of like, oh, come on, you know, guys, it's not like that. Now, obviously, David, there's a number of reasons why the AI would change, would take more professional and turn a white. I mean, even when you look at the results of all these AI models that have produced the perfect man or woman of the world. I believe these two results that we're about to look at are based off what Western European leanings, right? But I think this is just generally what you put into the AI because here's the thing, a lot of the AI tools are what programmed in English by Western people. And let's be honest, a lot of the if it's just basing it off previous image and data, a lot of the most famous stars in the world are European. Yeah. A lot of people had a lot of discussions, like you said, Eurocentric beauty standards. You could argue that Western Europe has pretty much dominated the global world for the past 300 years. So there was discussions taking it back to history. I mean, look, when you look at the perfect man or woman, and this is like a global perspective, the guy looks Italian and the girl definitely looks like blonde, Scandinavian. Yeah. So I guess that's what people generally like. I guess the Mediterranean male look is very sexy. You know, even minorities that I think move to the West standard, they could be subject to buying into this look standard too. Yeah. I mean, I think, I'm not saying that those are the for sure reasons that I'm not justifying what happened because obviously changing Rona into a white woman is clearly wrong. That clearly the AI did not do its job. You can also argue that the image that she changed her into doesn't even look more professional. Yeah. Looks more like a professional soccer player. Yeah. I thought she was going to put at least her in like a suit or something. Yeah. Anyway, let's get into the comments section or own takeaways. The first comment just was from a Korean female artist. She's like a R&B singer. She said, and people wonder why we struggle with our racial identity. And then somebody said AI built off the data of a zillion years of racial prejudice and discrimination. What? No way. JK. Someone said AI is biased towards the white world we live in because it pulls from current info available. I think that's fairly true. Yeah. Yeah. So what do you think? Does that absolve AI of being quote unquote racist or does it just explain it? Well, I would say this. You know how like China has the firewall, right? So maybe who knows? Maybe they're not even able to pull from some of the Chinese data or if a Chinese AI did the same thing. Who knows? It might be a little bit more like Chinese centric possibly. Well, 60% of the world's population is in Asia. So if it was global pulling from every single server in the world, which obviously nothing does, the results are going to look more Asian. Yeah. I'm just saying the Western servers probably have more Western faces on them, which makes sense to me. A lot of people were saying, you know, black and brown people have felt left out of tech for quite some time now due to facial recognition softwares and even some webcams not being able to like pick up the recognition. Right. Right. Right. Somebody said, well, if you want more Asian, then why don't you just go to China? The US databases have at least 70% white images because Asians are about 7% of the US population. So just go to China then. And then somebody said, hold on. Yo, even when we're talking about AI, a guy still said, go back to China. Move there. Well, you're, you're not satisfied with these AI images. Why don't you go back to China? Does it kind of go to show you that even in a metaverse world, the discussions are sort of the same. Even just the context are different. The race wars of America. This guy said, white people have had a good for the past 300 years. I want to be white too. This kind of reminds me of a, I'm not trying to dox him, but we had a Vietnamese fob worker in the past and he was like, man, when I was growing up, I always wanted to be white. But in 2023, I wish I was Korean, man. Hey, man, some groups, I mean, they're crushing it obviously in an aggregate sense. Who knows where you'll be placed amongst that spectrum. Somebody said, well, I am an Asian American. Do we even think that it's possible that AI has no concept of race? It is just picking the most popular portraits and picking it into the frame. And somebody said, yeah, everybody's trying to make everything make make it look like white people are racist. Finally, some minority with some sense. Yeah, no, I mean, I don't want to say, I mean, I don't know, racist is one thing. But if it's just pulling from the data, I was thinking about trying to rationalize this girl on the right with the blue eyes that they turned Rona into maybe the AI somehow determined that that was like the most hireable face of an intern like a because because it's very odd to see even a white girl with that hair that dark have like maybe she just has the face of somebody that is considered that like having a high probability of being hired. Right. That's what they meant. I don't know. So apparently AI is making the read that a frizzy haired cute blue smurf looking girl who looks like she could have played high level soccer is the most hireable. Is this the girl that is behind every social media account? I don't know. Hey, man, we need to see we need to listen to social media. AI sometimes it spits out an answer. It doesn't got to give you all the math and the questions behind it. Somebody says in every way possible, I think that she looked more professional than her new photo. And someone said any intelligent owner will choose an Asian worker over a blue eyed blonde worker because everybody knows that white kids are way lazier than Asian kids in 2023 unless you are hiring for a sales position, TV spot, or possibly strip joint. Maybe she should have maybe Ronas should have typed more professional for a engineering job. And then they just would have made her even more Asian with glasses. Right. Somebody said I wonder how many attempts it took for Rona Wang to generate an image so she could whine about it and get likes. Obviously, this was more from a right leaning crowd that's like kind of sick of what the victim identity or the woke culture or like people being like, well, of course you're living in a primarily Anglo-Saxon country. What else did you think would happen? Every opportunity you have to make us look bad, right? And I can see from their perspective, especially somebody who's older, who grew up in a different time, the 70s, the 80s, et cetera, possibly even the 90s. I could see this feeling being natural. Do you feel like they're sensing, like if you're like a more right-wing, leaning person that you're kind of like, damn, they're trying to cancel everybody, even the robots? Like, how do you, how do you cancel the algorithm now? Right, right, right. I do, I don't want to say sympathize, but I could empathize in a sense of like, they were the dominant group for so long. And now they're, they're seeing like, they're like, well, that's just a result of us being here first and we were dominant. And now it's like, we're vilified at every single detail point. In their, in their, not their defense, but this should not make you feel any type of way about your life. Like, just because an AI gave you this look, it shouldn't change the way you feel about your identity or your abilities. You know what I mean? Because I don't think most people who are hiring are doing it like AI. Like, I think most people who are hiring for the job, especially there are a lot of Asians who are hiring other people. Yeah. I do think some of it is like, maybe the younger generation of people being like, oh my gosh, white supremacy does exist in the Western world, but they needed the AI to like show it. Whereas obviously, if you're coming from a more studied or life experience perspective, you're like, yeah, of course. You're saying like millennials might even respond different to this news than a Gen Z person. Yeah, Gen Z being more shocked as they grew up in more sheltered and more. Yeah, millennials were like, yeah, of course. Yeah, of course. I'm surprised it wasn't blonde hair, to be honest. Somebody said, well, the eyes are more open and trustworthy looking in the new photo. The regular eyes look shifty and scheming. It is what it is, man. I said what I'm saying. That's racist. That's racist. That's racist. This is what most Asian women want anyway to look more Western. And even there was a comment from a black guy saying, yeah, to be honest, this is how most Asian women wish they looked, man. They worship white people the most. I just read the comments, guys. Somebody said, yeah, well, why don't you ask the AI to create a picture of an MBA girlfriend and see how that looks since we're based in everything all stereotypes? Pretty funny, man. David, I found some AI images of the perfect man and woman from different countries. So this is the United States. This is India. This is Japan, South Africa. How come for America? It looks like a really buffed out Chad Justin Trudeau. No, and then how come she has a scar on her eyes because she's fighting? I don't know. Yeah, these kind of look like they came out of a comic book. Yeah. All right. So in another app, this is a guy that's North Korean. This guy looks like somebody we know. He's good looking, but he also looks like normal, good looking. And then these are some other AI images from Mexico, Dominican Republic, and then Uganda's right here on the right. I think that's Egypt in the middle. Yeah. And what I believe actually from what I heard is the AI is pulling more from models, though. The AI is not pulling from every single regular person who works at the DMV. They are pulling from people who are models. So I believe that essentially that's why these are pretty accurate, but some cultures may put more, I guess, different from the median looking person as a model than others. David, is that why this guy from South Africa kind of looks like Will Smith? Because Will Smith has a lot of big imprint on the Internet. Yeah. Honestly, it's possible, guys. I have no idea. Anyway, let's just get to our takeaways, man. AI is interesting, Andrew. This is a new field. People are pulling from big data, but it used to be big numerical data. Now it's big visual data, JPEGs, GIFs, et cetera. Do you think, is it right? Is it wrong to just pull from models? Like I took 100,000 photos of the best looking guys and girls that you've put out in publications and taken with professional photos, and those are your most beautiful people in aggregate. Yeah. Yeah. I think that is hard, man, because I just wouldn't rely on AI for stuff like this, man. Like generative refill on Adobe Photoshop is pretty cool because it could put sunglasses where there's no sunglasses and stuff like that. And then AI is cool for hoping you write stuff and kind of get information quickly, but man, do not let AI make you feel any type of way about how you look or your own insecurities or securities or identity about yourself. You know what I mean? Like just do not let, there are so many other people out there that are going to bully you possibly or say different things about you. Don't let AI be another one, man. This is like algorithm. It is pulling from models, celebrities. Who are the most famous celebrities in the world? Brad Pitt. How many of these people look like Brad Pitt in some way? Well, they all look like they've been partially messed with. They all look like Brad Pitt and Henry Cavill put together. Yeah. In a comic book. That's it. And then Ryan Gosling a little bit in a little bit like G.I. Joe. Yeah. And then they look and then the black guy looks like Will Smith and like a couple other black people together. Yeah. They look like G.I. Joe's or super heroes, like a super woman if they were signed to the Ford model. Yeah. And then obviously when I look at the Japan and Philippines guy, I'm like, yo, clearly it's basing it off of like three different models and some of those are hop of two. So anyway, it's like, like we said, guys, what do you think about this whole Rona Wayne situation? Is it right? Is it wrong? Is it a joke? Is it more woke? Is it in the middle? For me, I think that anything that opens up these more difficult discussions is fine. Like we said, Andrew, I noticed with a lot of these online incidents, people need something to open that door for him. Other people don't need something to be a gimmick to open that door. Exactly. All right, everybody. You let us know in the comments down below. Does AI stand for Aryan imagination? Hey, man, keep it civil. A lot of good points on all sides. Until next time, we're the Hop Hop Boys. We out. Peace.