AI stereotypes: can artificial intelligence guess what you look like based on where you live?
We asked an AI tool for images of typical Aussies from major cities across the country – these were the results.
National
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From the Brisbane bogan to the Melbourne hipster, Aussie stereotypes are being immortalised and amplified by artificial intelligence.
But the AI doesn’t always get it right, according to demographers.
AI text-to-image generator Midjourney was asked to imagine a typical man and woman from major cities around Australia, generating characters with varying levels of statistical accuracy.
“It is playing with stereotypes, but it’s a nice visual way of seeing some cliches that might be true,” The Demographics Group director and co-founder Simon Kuestenmacher said.
Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Optimisation director Professor Ali Mirjalili explained that text-to-image generators are created by collecting a large volume of images, running them through an AI model that identifies features, then using these labelled images to train the text-to-image generator.
As such, the tools have the same biases as the data they were trained on.
“I have said (to Midjourney) ‘give me a nurse’, and it is usually a female nurse (because) probably the machine learning has seen more images of a female nurse,” he said.
“Automatically there will be a bias towards that gender.”
MELBOURNE
Midjourney’s typical Melbourne man was “a pretty good representation”, according to Mr Kuestenmacher, however the woman could have also been an international student from China.
“Young people in Melbourne is pretty accurate,” he said.
“(But) they are probably a bit too young. Melbourne is moving into middle age now with the Millennials getting older.”
Census data showed about 8.3 per cent of Greater Melbourne had Chinese ancestry in 2021 (compared to 5.5 per cent nationally) and the city had a median age of 37 (national median 38).
SYDNEY
“A boring dude in a suit” would have been more accurate in the “knowledge worker capital”, according to Mr Kuestenmacher.
“He looks like a backpacker or travelling companion rather than a clean-shaven Sydney-sider,” he said.
While impossible to know if the Sydney woman’s scarf symbolised cold weather or religious affiliation, Mr Kuestenmacher said Sydney was very culturally diverse.
Census data showed 43.2 per cent of people in Greater Sydney were born outside of Australia, compared to a national average of 33.1 per cent.
BRISBANE
“I like that he is a white guy because of all the big cities, Brisbane is relatively white compared to others,” Mr Kuestenmacher said.
“He could be a Kiwi. Kiwis love to come to Queensland.”
Census data showed 4.4 per cent of Greater Brisbane’s population was born in New Zealand – double the Australian average (2.1 per cent).
Social analyst Mark McCrindle said the Brisbane man looked more like he was from northern Queensland or Ipswich.
“If it had said Townsville, this would have nailed it because of the more working style – long beard, long hair, salt of the earth,” he said.
“But Brisbane, and Queensland generally, has more people in the vocationally employed areas – trades, construction, mining – and there is a bit of that coming out.”
He said the woman’s tattoos aligned with Australian trends as ink was very popular and particularly among women.
ADELAIDE
This was the most “misrepresented” city, according to Mr Kuestenmacher.
“The AI must have read Jimmy Barnes’ autobiography about the rough 80s in Adelaide,” he said.
“These images would be more representative of a struggling regional town that is bit by bit dying.”
Mr McCrindle said the images would be better suited to Whyalla or Murray Bridge.
“Adelaide has got a sophistication it hasn’t picked up here,” he said.
“It is also increasingly culturally diverse.”
GOLD COAST
“I’m loving the Gold Coast (characters) – they are clearly older with their grey hair and wrinkly skin but they are fit and active and that is increasingly what we see on the Gold Coast,” Mr Kuestenmacher said.
“That’s the new style of hip retirees.”
He said if an AI generator had existed in the past, it would have represented older people “more like the guy from Up!” but older Australians were now much healthier.
PERTH
Representing Perth with what appeared to be an Indigenous woman was “fair enough”, according to Mr Kuestenmacher.
“We have a higher Indigenous population in Perth than in Melbourne or Sydney so it makes sense,” he said.
“Indigenous populations are also young – by far the youngest cohort of people in the country.”
Census data showed about 2 per cent of Greater Perth’s population was Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, compared to 0.7 per cent of Greater Melbourne.
Mr Kuestenmacher was less convinced of the AI-generated Perth man.
“A fluoro vest on top of a company branded dress shirt would be the attire I would have guessed for him,” he said.
Greater Perth had a higher than average portion of technicians and trades workers (14.7 per cent of its workforce) and machine operators and drivers (7 per cent) during the 2021 Census.
HOBART
“I love the Hobart woman – she lives in Hobart, period, and I’ll fight anyone who claims she doesn’t,” Mr Kuestenmacher said.
“A well-looked-after woman just before retirement makes sense.”
The median age in Greater Hobart at Census was 39, and 42 in Tasmania more broadly – both older than the national median (38).
Mr McCrindle said the man also fit with Hobart’s tradition of “pushing back on commercialism and exploitation of the planet”.
“It leans a little bit more left on political issues and this fellow looks like he would comply with that,” he said.
CANBERRA
All the stereotypes should yell politicians or public servants, Mr Kuestenmacher said – and the AI-generated man did just that, likely depicting a former public servant or a semi-retired university professor.
He said both the male and female characters sent “vibes of high education”.
“You know she has several degrees,” he said.
“There is no way she left high school after year 10.”
Census data showed 52.8 per cent of Canberra’s population held at least a Bachelor’s degree in 2021 – double that of the national average (26.3 per cent).
Mr McCrindle said the woman’s attire – which appeared to be a Muslim covering – was not typical of Canberra, which had among the least religious populations in Australia.
DARWIN
While Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians were still a minority in Darwin, this capital had “by far the largest cohort” so Mr Kuestenmacher said this representation made sense.
The AI’s decision to show older people, however, was not typical.
“The Indigenous population in Darwin is extremely young so having one of the two as a teenager would have been nice to balance this out,” he said.
“We still have a gap to close – of life expectancy – so (these AI-generated people) are at the extreme end of the spectrum.”
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