Why this tool is reducing Asian influence in AI-generated art
Why this tool is reducing Asian influence in AI-generated art
Ex-NYPD detective is charged with allegedly helping robbers, who targeted Asian Americans, avoid arrest
“Asian Americans recorded the fastest population growth rate among all racial and ethnic groups in the United States, study finds.”
While this statistic may seem optimistic, there’s more to the story. The growth of the Asian American population in the U.S. has occurred in tandem with increased reports of discrimination and violence since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.
As our community grows, we are getting louder, we are telling our authentic stories…and we are making news headlines.
📰 The Headlines
Why this tool is reducing Asian influence in AI-generated art — The growing number of AI hobbyists from Asian countries means AI-generated art might over-index in places like South America. One creator is trying to generate more accurate returns.
Vhey Preexa, an artificial intelligence artist who uses the name “Zovya” online, noticed a pattern while trying to create an AI-powered tool that produces digital images of South American people and culture.
In many of the resulting photos of South America, made with the deep-learning model from the open source AI-art generator Stable Diffusion, Asian faces and Asian architecture would randomly appear, Preexa said.
To offset what she perceived as the overuse of Asian features and culture in AI models, Preexa, who is Serbian but lives in the U.S., developed a new tool, “Style Asian Less,” to weed out the unprompted influence of Asian and Japanese animation in generated images.
“Style Asian Less” is an embedded module on Civitai, an AI art community where people can upload and share models that create photorealistic images from text descriptions. The tool has been downloaded more than 7,000 times in the past two months on Civitai.
Ex-NYPD detective is charged with allegedly helping robbers, who targeted Asian Americans, avoid arrest — The criminal crew engaged in a series of robberies and burglaries that primarily targeted Asian American small-business owners, according to the DOJ.
A former New York Police Department detective took bribes from a group of robbers to help them evade arrest in a string of robberies targeting Asian American small businesses, federal prosecutors alleged Thursday.
Saul Arismendy De La Cruz, a former NYPD officer and then detective, aided a “violent theft crew” led by Dagoberto Soto-Ramirez by taking bribes in exchange for helping members of the four-person group avoid arrest, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York said in press release.
His lawyer, Howard Turner, told NBC News that De La Cruz has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“My client is entitled to the presumption of innocence and a fair trial, and I ask the public to withhold judgment as I evaluate and gather evidence while the judicial process continues,” Turner said in a statement.
From 2017 to 2022, the robbery crew committed a series of home invasion robberies and residential burglaries that primarily targeted the owners of small businesses, according to the indictment, filed in federal court in White Plains, New York. The majority of the targets were Asian American.
The group, armed with guns and other weapons, stole money, jewelry and other property from dozens of homes across the country, the indictment charged.
‘Never Have I Ever’ fans say goodbye to a South Indian American milestone — “Never Have I Ever” was a groundbreaking piece of South Asian American media, fans say. Has it opened the door for more like it — or will its finale leave a void?
There’s a bittersweetness for fans as they sit down for the final season of Netflix’s “Never Have I Ever,” they say. Watching now-high-school-senior Devi Vishwakumar’s messy, boy-crazy antics play out one last time, they’re savoring every moment of what they feel is the first true South Indian American story told on TV.
“It’s because of its specificity that it was groundbreaking,” said Snigdha Sur, editor-in-chief of South Asian American publication The Juggernaut. “It’s not just about an Indian American family; it’s specifically about a Tamil American family in California’s suburbs where there’s a breadwinning mother and a father that has passed away.”
They’re preparing to send off not only a beloved main character — but also a watershed piece of media that they hope changed the appetite for and prevalence of stories like it, they said. In a post-“Never Have I Ever” world, some wonder: How long will they have to wait for something like it to fill the void?
For those who share Devi’s Tamil American identity, the show was an especially significant first.
Created by Mindy Kaling, “Never Have I Ever” follows a multigenerational family of Tamil women in Southern California. Devi, played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, navigates high school friendships, crushes, spirituality and the recent death of her father. In season four, she prepares to graduate and leave all she knows behind.
📈 New Data
Corporate board representation — A new study published Thursday found that the number of women and people of color sitting on the nation’s largest companies’ corporate boards increased by 38% in 2022.
Mental health treatment — Asian children in the U.S. are least likely to receive medication for mental health disorders, according to a recent report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
📺 Screentime
‘Past Lives’ — Greta Lee of 'Past Lives' says truthful storytelling means not serving the white male gaze
‘XO, Kitty’ — The spinoff of Netflix’s “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” film franchise has been renewed for Season 2.
‘Physical 100’ — “Physical 100,” the first unscripted Korean show to top Netflix’s non-English global charts, is being given a second season.
📽️ What We’re Watching
✍️, Lea @ Crushing the Myth