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The Human and the Machine: AI Hopes and Fears in Media & Society
  • ISSN: 1757-2681
  • E-ISSN: 1757-269X

Abstract

This study explored the disability representations found in Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot from January to March 2024. The content analysis examined Google’s Bard and Gemini’s story structure – which evolved over the weeks – in creating stories with disabled main characters. Findings discovered themes such as supercrip, inspiration porn and pity. Disabled boys tended to be associated with the supercrip stereotype, centring on adventure-type stories. Disabled girls were more commonly portrayed as sources of inspiration, tasked with improving the world. Physical disabilities (e.g. using a wheelchair, crutches or a donkey) were prominent in 71 per cent ( = 55) of all stories.

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2024-10-17
2026-04-21

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