AI Initiative Generates Probable Adult Portraits of Children Abducted During Argentina’s Military Regime

What might a child, separated from their parents four decades ago during the era of Argentina’s military regime, look like in the present day?

Santiago Barros, an Argentine advertising specialist, has employed artificial intelligence to envisage the adult faces of such children, offspring of parents who vanished under the dictatorship.

Barros routinely posts these computer-generated images on an Instagram account named iabuelas. This term is a Spanish blend of ‘IA’ for artificial intelligence and ‘abuela’ for grandmother, inspired by the prominent activist group, Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, dedicated to locating lost children.

“In most instances, we possess photographs of the disappeared adults, yet their stolen children remain faceless in the public eye,” Barros said in an interview with The Big Big News.

From 1976 to 1983, Argentina was under a brutal dictatorship that executed a program of forcible removal of infants from political opponents who were often detained, executed, and vanished without a trace. These children were typically brought up by families sympathetic to, or associated with, the dictatorship.

To generate these images, Barros uses an application named Midjourney to amalgamate photographs of the missing parents, accessible through the public archives of the Grandmothers’ website. The app produces two male and two female facial renderings for each pair, from which Barros selects the most realistic images.

While Barros clarifies that his initiative does not aim to supplant the DNA-testing methods employed by the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, he hopes it will provoke introspection among those older than 46 who might question their origins. It also serves to underscore the Grandmothers’ four-decade-long quest to find these missing children.

The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo estimate that approximately 500 children were illicitly taken from their parents. To date, they have successfully identified 133 through genetic testing. The organization commends Barros’ initiative for amplifying awareness about the missing children but maintains that only DNA testing, facilitated by the National Genetic Data Bank they advocated for in 1987, can conclusively reconnect these individuals with their biological families.

Besides using the Grandmothers’ public archives, Barros also incorporates photographic materials contributed by concerned individuals. Some who have viewed the iabuelas Instagram account have observed that the generated images tend to standardize features, thus casting doubt on their authenticity. However, in some instances, families searching for lost members have been struck by the uncanny resemblance between the generated images and their relatives.

One such case involved Matías Ayastuy, who approached Barros with pictures of his missing parents. His mother, Marta Bugnone, was abducted in 1977 while pregnant. Using AI algorithms to blend parental images, the program yielded surprisingly realistic potential siblings.

“While many observe the male generated image as bearing resemblance to me, the female rendering stunned me with its similarity to my cousin,” Ayastuy revealed.

As of yet, no individual has formally initiated an identification process after recognizing themselves in one of Barros’ AI-generated images.

All posted images come with a disclaimer, indicating that iabuelas is an “unofficial artistic endeavor” and stressing that artificial intelligence outcomes might lack precision.

Pedro Sandoval, whose identity was established in 2006, initially supported the project but later expressed concerns that it may overly rely on standardized European features. Barros acknowledges the limitation, pointing out that a significant number of the missing individuals had European ancestry, in a nation heavily influenced by European migration.

The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo caution that while the AI project is interesting, it should not give rise to false hopes. “The generated images are simulations based on the genetics of both parents, but it’s important to recognize that people are more complex than the sum of their parents’ genes. Foreign AI applications may also introduce biases based on their own population’s genotypes,” the group declared in a late July statement.

Contributions to this report were made by Victor Caivano, a videojournalist with The Big Big News.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Artificial Intelligence in Tracing Missing Children

More about Artificial Intelligence in Tracing Missing Children

• Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo Official Website
• Argentina’s Dirty War
• Overview of Artificial Intelligence in Facial Recognition
• National Genetic Data Bank of Argentina
• Santiago Barros’ iabuelas Instagram Account
• Artificial Intelligence in Human Identification
• Human Rights Abuses in Argentina
• The Big Big News
• DNA Testing for Human Identification