Publicist uses AI to create adult faces of children who went missing during Argentina dictatorship

Argentinian publicist Santiago Barros is using artificial intelligence to create adulthood images of children who were taken from their parents four decades ago during Argentina's military dictatorship.

Barros uploads these images almost every day on an Instagramaccount called iabuelas. The name is a portmanteau in Spanish for artificial intelligence or IA and grandmother, or abuela. The name is also inspired by the well-known activist group Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. The activist group searches for missing children.

“We have seen the photos of most of the disappeared, but we don’t have photos of their children, of those children who were stolen,” Barros told The Associated Press. “It struck me that these people did not have a face.”

During the years of dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983) there was a systematic theft of babies of political dissidents carried out by military officials. These dissidents were detained or often executed. The babies were then raised by families linked to the dictatorship as if they were their own.

Barros used an app called Midjourney and combined photos of the disappeared fathers and mothers from the public archive of the Grandmothers website. He created images showing what the faces of these children, now in adulthood, would look like.

For each combination, the app shows two female and two male possibilities.

Barros then chooses the image of each gender that seems most realistic.

The project is not an attempt to replace efforts headed by the Grandmothers group of identifying grandchildren through DNA testing but the goal is to stir the conscience of those over 46 who may be doubtful about their origin and to serve as a reminder of the more than four decades the grandmothers have spent trying to locate these children.

As per the estimate by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, around 500 children were taken from their parents during the dictatorship years. The group has been able to locate 133 grandchildren through genetic analysis.

The group has appreciated Barros' initiative as it seeks to raise awareness about the children. The group warns that the only sure-shot way to link these people with their families was DNA testing which the group continues to carry out.

In addition to working with photos from the Grandmothers’ archives, Barros uses photographic material provided by interested parties.

In some cases, those who have accessed iabuelas have noticed in the images a tendency towards standardisation, raising questions about their approximation to reality. But in others, families searching for a lost relative have been shocked by the resemblance they found in those faces to blood relatives.

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