"Successful aging" with generative AI: cultural and ethical challenges in representing aging through synthetic imagery.
Synthetic imagery produced by Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly transforming how aging is visually represented and culturally understood. However, the accuracy and representational adequacy of these outputs require further examination, especially when addressing minority or disci...
| Publicado en: | Gerontologist Vol. 66; no. 7; pp. 1 - 14 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Jul2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=195281397&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 195281397 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00169013 GET jtl: Gerontologist issn: 00169013 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2026 vid: 66 iid: 7 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 195281397 10.1093/geront/gnag024 ppf: 1 ppct: 13 formats: tig: atl: "Successful aging" with generative AI: cultural and ethical challenges in representing aging through synthetic imagery. aug: au: Chen, Jiayu Cao, Jiawei Wang, Qingwei affil: Department of Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore, Singapore Department of Aging Services and Management, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China HeXie Management Research Centre, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China su: East Asia Aesthetics Culture Sex distribution Social norms Social attitudes Ageism Active aging Medical ethics Social classes Generative artificial intelligence Research evaluation Photography Thematic analysis Conceptual structures sug: subj: Aesthetics Culture Sex distribution Social norms Social attitudes Ageism Active aging Medical ethics Social classes East Asia Generative artificial intelligence Research evaluation Photography Thematic analysis Conceptual structures keyword: aged aging copyrightHolder:The Gerontological Society of America copyrightYear:2026 Critical visual analysis Cultural gerontology ethics gender Generative AI generative artificial intelligence gerontology https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnag024 imagery (psychotherapy) inLanguage:en narrative discourse productive aging publisher:Oxford University Press sameAs:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41844532/ Successful aging Visual culture aged aging copyrightHolder:The Gerontological Society of America copyrightYear:2026 Critical visual analysis Cultural gerontology ethics gender Generative AI generative artificial intelligence gerontology https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnag024 imagery (psychotherapy) inLanguage:en narrative discourse productive aging publisher:Oxford University Press sameAs:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41844532/ Successful aging Visual culture ab: Synthetic imagery produced by Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly transforming how aging is visually represented and culturally understood. However, the accuracy and representational adequacy of these outputs require further examination, especially when addressing minority or discipline-specific concepts, such as successful aging. This study critically examines GenAI imagery in East Asian contexts, focusing on how representations of gender, class, and successful aging are constructed and circulated. Drawing on the updated successful aging concepts, we employ visual semiotics as an analytical framework, situated within cultural gerontology, to treat synthetic images as algorithmic artifacts that reflect and reinforce normative ideals of later life. Using critical visual experimentation, we used Midjourney to generate 288 images for analysis, guided by prompts addressing social, affective, and environmental dimensions of aging. A total of 36 textual prompts were designed and grouped into three thematic categories: minimal descriptive prompts, scene-based prompts, and value-coded prompts. Our findings reveal gendered aesthetic norms, class-coded relational tropes, and algorithmic failures tied to ageist language. Images generated with prompts containing the phrases "successful aging" and "aging successfully" suggest that the image-generating tool embedded with natural language processing does not adequately interpret these expressions. We argue that GenAI compresses the complexity of aging into stylized, stereotypical, and reductive forms that risk amplifying cultural biases. At the crossroads of achieving reframing aging, our study calls for age-inclusive, culturally grounded AI design and contributes to interdisciplinary debates on synthetic visuality, representational justice, and AI-mediated culture, helping to advance a more inclusive and nuanced account of aging. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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