I asked AI to produce a picture of people playing pool. Now, people are not just male, people encompasses anyone and everyone – so guess what I got? Certainly not what I asked for. Maybe the person in the back is a woman but it is hard to tell. Notice, however, that there is not a single person of colour in this group. Hmm.

I wasn’t thrilled with this picture, of course, because I’m not in it, and neither is my friend, Thelma, or Joan and one of those women is a person of colour. I thought I’d ask AI to generate a picture of older women playing pool…

This picture was generated with “older women playing pool”. I don’t know about you, but none of us (regardless of gender) leans over a pool table like this. And again, no people of colour represented in the picture. Women are not always white. f

Now, when I started this post, I was going to write about my pool game, but this was an interesting journey into the world of AI – which seems to be kind of sexist and racist at the same time. So, I won’t be using that for pictures of people in the future.

I did not learn to play pool in my youth. Everyone else did, but the oldest and a girl, my dad didn’t think it was worth while teaching me. And I didn’t get a chance to learn in university, which is where my sister learned it. And so, together with others in this senior’s complex, I am making things right.

Here’s to improving!

Marcia