Ethics and the Artificial Image: Accountability and Reliability for a New Status of the Visual

The book focuses on the emerging ethical issues related to the dissemination of images produced by artificial intelligence. With the introduction of generative AI, it has become necessary to rethink the status of the image and the concept of imagination from an ethical perspective. The author discusses, in particular, the role of visual generative AI in advertising communication and in the domain of visual information, focusing on the polarizing power and biasing effects of certain images. Many ethical issues intersect with European regulations concerning techno-artificial images, for example in relation to copyright, co-authorship, bias, privacy, liability, etc. In conclusion, a reflection is offered on the fundamental role of ethics in the design of AI and on the ways in which generative AI models are used and brought into relation. The vulnerability of systems and individuals to the risk of an increasingly simulacral reality, and to the anesthetization of our gaze, is analyzed. Will technological progress, then, remain at the service of humanity, fostering ethical awareness, or will it lead us toward uncertainty and radical nihilism?