Picturing history, with AI’s help

On Monday, the government unveiled “official portraits” of the 10 national heroes named during last year’s Heroes and Foreparents Day.

The portraits of the five who lived most recently are photographs. But the rest of the heroes lived before photography was commonplace in the Virgin Islands, so their portraits had to be derived differently.

The images of Shelly Martin, Perreen Georges, Obadiah Dawson and Henry Garnett were rendered using artificial intelligence, while Augustus McCleverty’s portrait was an artist’s rendering, according to government.

The AI renderings were created by a committee spearheaded by the Premier’s Office, which used photographs of the heroes’ descendants and other information, said acting Communications Director Karia Christopher.

“Anyone that had an ‘AI generated’ caption at the bottom, it means that [the committee] took pictures of several family members and made a generated AI photo to the best of their knowledge and also the family’s endorsement of what this person particularly looked like,” she explained.

Throughout the project, which she said began last year, familial satisfaction was a priority, according to the communications director.

“The committee wanted to ensure the family was pleased with what the renderings look like,” she said.