Content creators are making AI-generated images of historical events and figures. Do they belie the past?

Generative AI chatbots have made it possible to turn historical paintings of Indian rulers and warriors into lifelike portraits.

The line separating historical fact from fiction is blurring fast as creators are making images of the pre-modern past in mere seconds, by using text-to-image AI models. Generative AI chatbots have made it possible to turn historical paintings of Indian rulers and warriors into lifelike portraits. Other AI images illustrate atrocities against enslaved subjects, women, and common warriors who may have been left out of historical records.

But unlike the lavishly illustrated miniature paintings or carefully carved temple sculptures, AI-generated images are flawed due to poorly rendered settings and historical errors. While some mistakes may be obvious to viewers, others are only noticeable to professional historians.

Some scholars argue that the gaps in historical archives should be left as they are, in order to keep the space open for further research or to show how valuable sources of evidence have been destroyed, lost, or kept out of public reach. Despite this, content creators, who build their repository of historical events in India, are choosing to make AI-generated images.

This crop of media tends to confirm the creator’s personal biases and emotional interpretations of their historical subjects. AI models allow a person to create a flattering photo of a strong and victorious ruler. It also allows a person who detests the same ruler to generate a pitiful image of a man who has lost a battle.

Whose image carries more weight? Social media algorithms and followers will decide. Some content filters in AI models stop users from creating particularly gory or explicit historical images, but users with experience can easily bypass such restrictions.

Meanwhile, some educators are generating AI images for more academic reasons.

Ruchika Sharma, a historian of medieval India, makes YouTube videos to educate her followers about centuries-old topics that cause controversy even today, like religious relations in the Mughal empire and the destruction of Hindu temples.