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Nataliia Laba

@nataliialaba.com

2.8K followers 638 following 71 posts

Co-edited book: Six Critical Lenses on AI-Generated Images www.routledge.com/Six-Critical-Lens… w: www.nataliialaba.com/research/publi…

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Nataliia Laba @nataliialaba.com · 28/05/2026

🌿 New article in AI and Ethics: “Perplexity is BS machine:” from controversy to AI ethics as discourse?” 🌿 with @skjethani.bsky.social; on public discourses surrounding AI-powered conversational search engines, using the 2024 controversy over Perplexity as our central case. doi.org/10.1007/s436...

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Nataliia Laba @nataliialaba.com · 12/03/2026

Our co-edited open access book with @catherinebouko.bsky.social, Six Critical Lenses on AI-Generated Images, now has a cover and critics’ reviews 📘 ✨ www.routledge.com/Six-Critical...

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Nataliia Laba @nataliialaba.com · 08/01/2026

My piece “AI is not a tool” is out in AI & Society. The tool metaphor is all over AI industry rhetoric that markets visual #genAI as the solution to your creative needs doi.org/10.1007/s001... 1/2 Image credit: Beckett LeClair / betterimagesofai.org / CC BY 4.0

A long rainbow ribbon feeds into a grey meat grinder bearing a simplified neural network diagram on its side. Out the other end spills a collection of black and white 1s and 0s.

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Nataliia Laba @nataliialaba.com · 04/10/2025

How do we prevent AI companies from enabling uncredited mimicry of culture in AI-generated images? Some answers at www.acume.org/r/beyond-mag.... Click ➕ for evidence and actionable steps. Based on my 2024 study in New Media & Soc doi.org/10.1177/1461... #criticalAI #generativeAI #noAIart

Screenshot of the article part where proposed action is described. It reads as follows: Proposed action
AI image generation platforms must implement clear transparency systems that automatically identify and credit the artistic styles or cultural works being replicated in generated outputs.

There should be more focus on the development of alternative prompting frameworks that encourage creative exploration rather than simple replication of the styles of the living artists.

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Nataliia Laba @nataliialaba.com · 25/09/2025

Early career and international submissions Q&A for #ICA26 @icahdq.bsky.social Join the upcoming Q&A Zoom Event organized by the ICA Visual Communication Studies Division (VCSD) to know more about our call for abstracts and papers in response to the theme "Communication and Inequalities in Context"

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Nataliia Laba @nataliialaba.com · 23/09/2025

New study in Memory, Mind & Media: "Memory of the multitude and representation in AI-generated #images of #war; #AI and #Memory special collection. doi.org/10.1017/mem.... #criticalAI @universitypress.cambridge.org

Memory of the multitude and representation in AI-generated
images of war

Abstract
This study addresses how AI-generated images of war are changing the making of memory. Instead of
asking how AI-generated images affect individual recall, we focus on how they communicate specific
representations, recognising that such portrayals can cultivate particular assumptions and beliefs.
Drawing on memory of the multitude, visual social semiotics, and cultivation/desensitisation theories,
we analyse how visual generative AI mediates the representation of the Russia-Ukraine war. Our
corpus includes 200 images of the Russia-Ukraine war generated from 23 prompts across proprietary
and open-source visual generative AI systems. The findings indicate that visual generative AI tends to
present a sanitised view of the war. Critical aspects, such as death, injury, and suffering of children and
refugees are often excluded. Furthermore, a disproportional focus on urban areas misrepresents the
full scope of the war. Visual generative AI, we argue, introduces a new dimension to memory making in
that it blends documentation with speculative fiction by synthesising the multitude embedded within
the visual memory of war archives, historical biases, representational limitations, and commercial risk
aversion. By foregrounding the socio-technical and discursive dimensions of synthetic war content,
this study contributes to an interdisciplinary dialogue on collective memory at the intersection of
visual communication studies, media studies, and memory studies by providing empirical insights into
how generative AI mediates the visual representation of war through human-archival-mechanistic
entanglements.
Keywords: visual generative AI; AI-generated images; memory of the multitude; war representation

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Nataliia Laba @nataliialaba.com · 31/12/2024

my brief 2024 on bsky @skircle.bsky.social: @eryk.bsky.social, @wasielewski.bsky.social, @bildoperationen.bsky.social doing great work on critical AI and synthetic image cultures @neous.bsky.social driving multimodality research @socialmedialab.ca making computational social science accessible

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Nataliia Laba @nataliialaba.com · 10/12/2024

📢 CfP: Join us for the #ICA 2025 Pre-conference: Frames of Transition: Visual Communication in Times of Social Change on June 11, 2025, at the University of Denver, Colorado, USA! Please check our full CfP and spread the word: cdn.ymaws.com/www.icahdq.o... #ICA2025 #VisualCommunication 1/2

Flyer for the ICA 2025 Preconference hosted by the International Communication Association's Visual Communication division. The event is titled "Frames of Transition: Visual Communication in Times of Social Change" and will take place on June 11, 2025, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM in Denver, Colorado, USA. The deadline for submitting extended abstracts is February 1, 2025. The objective is to contribute to academic scholarship and practical applications, exploring how visual communication helps navigate and make sense of social change. Themes include phenomena-oriented, actor/agent-oriented, and method-oriented approaches. Formats include traditional research (1000 words) and a research escalator (500 words with mentorship). Contact information for organizers Nataliia Laba (n.laba@rug.nl), Saumava Mitra (saumava.mitra@dcu.ie), and Kareem El Damanhoury (kareem.eldamanhoury@du.edu) is provided. Co-sponsored by the ICA Global Communication & Social Change Division. A black-and-white image of a person painting is included on the right side of the flyer.

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Nataliia Laba @nataliialaba.com · 03/12/2024

Generative Al becomes a public problem when institutionalized, sociotechnical, performative accounts of failure articulate ideals of "public".

Title: "How Could Generative AI Be a Public Problem?"
Description: The image features a circular flow diagram with two main components: "Accounts of Failure" and "Ideals of 'Public'." Below the diagram, a table outlines different types of publics and where to trace failures:
Infrastructural Publics (LeDantec): Trace failure in datasets, models, interfaces.
Recursive Publics (Kelty, Jacobsen): Trace failure in self-knowledge & expertise.
Algorithmic Publics (Gillespie): Trace failure in probabilities, thresholds, ranks.
Participatory Publics (Jenkins, Gourlet et al): Trace failure in community-defined stakes.

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Nataliia Laba @nataliialaba.com · 30/11/2024

Me after realizing I have 8 peer reviews due this month #AcademicSky

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Nataliia Laba @nataliialaba.com · 21/11/2024

What do people think about visual #genAI in 2024? My study “AI vs artists: training data, creative economy, and public opinion about visual generative AI” shorturl.at/EsluU presented at the int. conf. on /the challenges of vis comm in the age of AI/ in Bremen today has some answers 1/🧵

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