Artificial Intelligence: Nigerian Artist Reinventing Elegant Aging With AI

The series of images, titled Fashion Show For Seniors, garnered thousands of like-minded comments.

With over 100,000 likes for the photos on social media, Afegbua’s work has clearly had an impact in the real world. But questions remain about whether computer-generated work is a threat to human creativity. Ethical issues also arise.

However, the artist has a thoughtful and nuanced approach.

We’re about to start the Zoom interview, with Afegbua sitting in his office in Lagos, Nigeria, when his two-year-old son calls out for some attention.

“He was born smart and everything he does is very technological. He already knows how to use mobile phones and iPads,” he says proudly.

It’s clear he’s passing on his love of technology and art to his son, but what inspired this business school student to embark on a creative career?

“Someone gave me a camera and it was taken away.”

He became a director and now produces commercials, documentaries and virtual reality exhibitions. He also embraced the emergence of AI as a new driving force in art.

With his series of fashion shows, he saw an opportunity to challenge what he sees as the marginalization of the elderly in society and wanted to challenge perceptions about aging.

“I’ve never seen a senior fashion show, but they do exist – so why not?”.

An obvious objection is that there are real old people and real fashion designers who could have been photographed in the real world.

But for Afegbua, it is the message of aspiration behind the images that is crucial.

He thinks they can make people think, “What if we start doing things this way?”.

The use of AI in art has caused some backlash, not only because there are questions about whether computers can truly replicate human creativity, but Afegbua sees it as an exciting opportunity for artists to grow.

AI imaging software uses either keywords (called prompts) suggested by the artist, or uploaded photos, to create an image from this information.

What Afegbua says he does with his work is teach AI to become more creative, and in return, it makes new discoveries.

“Artificial Intelligence learns from us and learns from the World Wide Web. I try to learn from it too. I try to learn how to talk to it, how to communicate better to get accurate results from it.”

For the senior fashion show photos, Afegbua went back and forth with multiple AI image generators—he uses three different ones to get different results—to find a look that works perfectly for the “models.” his.

“I’m a fashion lover and I always like to experiment. I wanted to mix traditional Nigerian African fashion with something futuristic, Afro-futuristic.”

Another series of photographs, which he calls his Fiction series, are also inspired by an idea of ​​the future – although it dates the world he created 250,000 years ago.

Galvanized by the styles of Black Panther’s Army of Wakanda and his new Hollywood sidekick Ruth Carter, the collection of images depicts the people of Ngocholas, an imagined ancient African civilization.

“They can talk to machines with their minds because they’ve cracked different codes. They’re very technologically advanced in the sense that they understand how to mix biology with technology and combine them together,” he says. the people who live in Ngochola.

Afegbua is clearly a staunch advocate of using AI in art, but he admits that concerns about its use may be valid.

Recently, there have been complaints that original works of artists are used without acknowledging the source material and then manipulated.

It’s not Afegbua’s way, but he knows AI can be used that way.

“When it comes to AI, there are a lot of ethical issues with it stealing other people’s work to create a lot of different things,” he admits. “It’s a tool — and any tool can be used unethically.”

The demand for AI-generated images shows no signs of abating, with the #AIfilter hashtag garnering 1.3 billion views on TikTok, where users have uploaded selfies in exchange for a new computer-generated image of themselves.

Afegbua is optimistic when it comes to the use of technology in art.

“I don’t think the technology has a limited lifespan. I think it can get better because the algorithms are always improving. The engines are always improving.

“I think this will help shape the narrative and the intended image of Africa now because it makes things so much more accessible.”

With this in mind, Afegbua plans to continue developing the Elder series.

He wants to use AI technology to help reimagine what is possible today and in the future.

All images are property of Malik Afegbua/SlickCity.