Asics is retraining the way AI views exercise
By Lucy Mitchell on Friday, April 28, 2023
It’s known that our own biases leak out into AI – seeing that those who code AI are human. So, when Asics asked AI to ‘show images of someone is healthy and exercises’, it generated photos of bodies which were extreme, with 12 packs, no body fat and chiselled jaws as just some of the characteristics shown. It represented exercise falsely – as ‘purely for the aesthetic’ and not for the rewarding, mental-health-boosting activity it is. Furthermore, 7 in 10 people said they found these types of images harmful to body confidence.
Asics wants to show that this isn’t the true face of exercise – so they have created a set of photos through AI to more accurately depict the true nature of exercise.
They are also developing a free AI training programme and set of tools which will help eliminate harmful and inaccurate representations, which we can all be a part of – you can donate your own exercise images to the AI Training by sharing pictures to social media, using #TrainingAI and tagging @ASICS.
