AI reimagines babies abducted in Argentina's 1970s dictatorship era to help find them

After over 40 years of Agrentina's mass abduction of babies during the military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s, an Artificial Intelligence artist posted pictures of how the kids would look now, withthe hope to reunite them with their families.

The images of a man and a woman were shared on Instagram by an account called IAbuelas by Santiago Barros, the creator. Hecame up with the idea last year after discovering the Midjourney AI tool, Rest of World reported.

The images were created by splicing photos of the child's parents using Midjourney and then applying the age filter. The end product is a photorealistic portrait of the person in his or her in their current possible look in late forties.

Barros took images from the online archive of Grandmothers for the Plaza de Mayo, an organisation founded by the grandmothers of the kids kidnapped. The grandmothers earlier used to stand outside kindergartens, waiting for their disappeared grandkids.

Clarifying no connection with IAbuelas, the organisation reached out to Barros and published a joint statement saying that it is just an AI art project.

'They are waiting for you'

In a conversation with the Rest of World, Barros said that this is not just important for his family, but for others too. "That's what most important to me- for it to fell like they are looking at you, waiting for you to do something."

However, the images lack credibility. This is because of a "lack of data," as the military kidnapped the kids immediately after their birth and even the gender of many babies wasn't verified, the report said.

The images displayed by IAbeula are not a clear representation of Argentina's ethnic diversity, nor the imperfections that come with age.

"The app tends to show hegemonic portraits," Barros said. "For example, making everyone very thin … I’m working to make the images more diverse, more representative of what Argentines truly are."

Despite the project’s limits, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo appreciated the spirit behind IAbuelas. It may also use AI portraits for its promotional material.

Barros hopes that his project might do some good amid decades of often fruitless search. He said, "If there’s at least one person that’s inspired by the project and calls the Grandmothers to ask about his or her identity, this will have been all worth it."

(With inputs from agencies)

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