Suburbs Convince Midjourney To Fix Stereotypes In Its Imagery Through Snail Mail

Image via BETC Paris

French suburbs have persuaded Midjourney to replace its bias-filled database of their neighborhoods with more realistic imagery. How did they do it? By sending postcards.

Last November, Parisian ride-hailing app Heetch, in collaboration with advertising agency BETC Paris, embarked on a mission to tackle stereotypes in generative artificial intelligence systems like Midjourney when they encountered the word “banlieue,” or suburbs, which constantly yielded unsightly outcomes.

Typing “/imagine a wedding in France” into Midjourney, for instance, conjured up cheerful images of matrimonial bliss. But add “in the banlieue” to the equation, and the scenario morphed dramatically, showing a gloomier side that didn’t reflect the true spirit of these communities.

Image via BETC Paris

Traditionally shown in a less favorable light by digital systems, the banlieue’s image was due for an upgrade, and Heetch and BETC Paris were determined to correct these distortions. Cue operation Greetings from La Banlieue.

Armed with cameras, the team set out to capture the banlieue as it truly is—a vibrant, dynamic part of French culture. These genuine scenes were then transformed into thousands of postcards. The keepsakes found their way to various community hubs—from the local bakery to the neighborhood barbershop, each location became a collection point for this unique form of protest.

Distributed across the neighborhoods, the postcards invited 12.5 million residents to share their own messages and urge all 11 employees at Midjourney’s headquarters in California to reevaluate their images.

Image via BETC Paris

“Because the banlieue is of central importance to us, we believed we could do something about it ourselves by supplying the Midjourney employees with a set of corrective data: thousands of pictures of the banlieue, the real one, to bring a more balanced representation to their AI,” Renaud Berthe, chief marketing officer at Heetch, shared then.

Olivier Aumard, executive creative director at BETC Paris, chimed in, “We visited their corporate website and that’s actually where we found the solution. As surprising as it may seem, Midjourney only has 11 employees. So, we decided to reach out to them in an uncommon—and unexpected—way to put our new database right in front of them, so that they can't ignore our message.”

And lo and behold, they listened. This week, Heetch announced that the Midjourney team had gotten in touch to have the digital files of the thousands of images sent over so that it could add them to its training base.

“Any chance you could send us the data in a more usable format? Would love to include it but I do not have time to go through thousands of postcards scanning QR codes,” a staff member wrote back.

“Our cards have arrived safely in California,” Berthe reflected on LinkedIn. “It is with immense pride that we were contacted by Midjourney who wanted to integrate all our photos of the suburbs, the real one, into the database that trains their model, for a better representation of the suburbs.”

He added: “From the bottom of our hearts, we wanted to thank the suburban residents who helped us by writing their best arguments on tens of thousands of cards, to convince the Midjourney employees.

“Also from the bottom of our hearts, we would like to thank the team at Midjourney… for agreeing to integrate our images with their AI, helping us to advance the image of the suburbs.”

[via Matthieu Bouilhot and BETC Paris, images via BETC Paris]