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The gen AI Kool-Aid tastes like eugenics

The Verge / 3/21/2026

💬 OpinionIdeas & Deep Analysis

Key Points

  • The Verge piece follows Valerie Veatch's experience with OpenAI's Sora and documents how generative AI can produce images that are racist or sexist.
  • It argues that many AI enthusiasts downplay these biases, raising ethical questions about who is harmed by the technology.
  • The article critiques the hype around gen AI, suggesting discussions focus more on capabilities than on governance, safety, and responsible design.
  • It calls for broader voices and norms around data sourcing, consent, and content moderation to prevent the replication of harmful stereotypes.
An AI-generated image of a bunch of white men standing around and looking at a half-full pitcher of Kool-Aid placed on an elevated stage.

Like many people, director Valerie Veatch was intrigued when OpenAI first released its Sora text-to-video generative AI model to the public in 2024. Though she didn't fully understand the technology, she was curious about what it could do, and she saw that other artists were building online communities to share their new AI creations. The hope of connecting with people drew Veatch into the AI space, but once she was there, she was shocked to see how often the technology would generate images dripping with racism and sexism.

Veatch was even more unsettled by the way her new AI-enthusiast peers did not seem to care that the machine they ralli …

Read the full story at The Verge.