“Platform Realism”. AI image synthesis and the rise of generic visual content

With each update, AI image-synthesis models such as DALL-E and Midjourney promise more “realistic” representations. However, as the essay shows, the supposed “reality” they represent is not only heavily biased toward white, Western, male, middle-class aesthetic values and ideological preferences but is also inherently generic. AI images are derived from billions of past images, filtered through verbal concepts, adapted to corporate standards, and optimized for consumer expectations. The effect might be called “platform realism”: a second-order aesthetic of generic images. The essay develops this concept of “platform realism,” situating AI image synthesis’s aesthetics within a broader history of generic visual content, examining its infrastructural conditions within contemporary platform capitalism, and outlining its implications for digital visual culture.