108: Generative AI Has a Body Bias: Who Gets to Be Seen?

About this episode

This episode features a discussion with Dr Aisha Sobey on the body bias in Generative AI and its ethical implications.

Welcome back to Appearance Matters: The Podcast! In this month’s episode, Kat speaks to Dr Aisha Sobey. Aisha is a Research Associate at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, where she studies the ethical implications of Generative AI and digital health systems, especially focusing on the impacts on non-normative bodies, employing Political Economy, Science and Technology Studies, Fat Studies, and Disability Studies theories in her work. Read more about Aisha’s work here: https://www.lcfi.ac.uk/people/aisha-sobey Read Aisha’s study on GenAI and weight bias here: Sobey, A. (2025). The thinness of GenAI: Body size in relation to the construction of the normate through GenAI image models. AI and Ethics, 5(4), 4181–4196. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43681-025-00684-x If you’re interested in hearing more about the Appearance Matters Conference, hosted by the Centre for Appearance Research (9th – 11th of June 2026), click here: https://www.uwe.ac.uk/research/centres-and-groups/appearance/news-and-events/am-conference Cover image by Trevor James Episode image by Yutong Liu & Digit / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/…

People in this episode

Host: Kat Schneider

Guest: Dr Aisha Sobey

Topics covered

• Generative AI
• body bias
• ethical implications
• digital health systems
• non-normative bodies
• Political Economy
• Disability Studies

Keywords

• Generative AI
• body bias
• ethical implications
• digital health
• non-normative bodies
• Fat Studies
• Disability Studies

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, Centre for Appearance Research, AI and Ethics

Books & works: The thinness of GenAI: Body size in relation to the construction of the normate through GenAI image models

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