A list of AI-generated Barbies from 'every country' gets blasted on Twitter for blatant racism and endless cultural inaccuracies

• Buzzfeed published a list of AI-generated Barbies from 'every country' on July 7.
• It went viral as Twitter users pointed out racial and cultural stereotypes and inaccuracies.
• People also point out that many of these Barbies are whitewashed. 

Last Friday, Buzzfeed published an article featuring AI-generated images of what "Barbie would look like in every country in the world." People on Twitter have been pointing out the blatant racism and endless cultural inaccuracies seen on many of the "dolls."

The list includes images of Barbie set in 194 countries. The images were generated by Midjourney, a generative AI model that converts language prompts into images, per Buzzfeed. 

Preceding the list, Buzzfeed wrote a brief disclaimer that the images "reveal biases and stereotypes that currently exist within AI models," noting that they are "not meant to be seen as accurate or full depictions of human experience."

Twitter users have since been ripping apart the images, criticizing them for racism and cultural stereotypes.

—(Not) Youtube Kids (@RealYouTubeKids) July 10, 2023

"They really need to stop dumping AI generated content without Peer reviewing it, because they literally just made German Barbie an SS Nazi general," tweeted @RealYouTubeKids, pointing out that the AI-generated German Barbie's outfit was reminiscent of a Nazi soldier's uniform, as opposed to traditional German clothing.

—Wagatwe Wanjuki ???????? ???????? (@wagatwe) July 8, 2023

"THEY GAVE SOUTH SUDAN BARBIE A GUN," read a Tweet. Though Buzzfeed has since updated its article to include a new version without a weapon, several other Tweets show that the original AI-generated South Sudan Barbie held a gun on her left. 

Several of the images inaccurately depict cultural outfits.

—Hoàng Độ (@LeHoang_Dao) July 10, 2023

"1. That's not the Vietnamese traditional clothing, áo dài. 2. The collar is in a reverse y position as well, symbolizing death," Tweeted @LeHoang_Dao, identifying the inaccuracies in the AI-generated image for the Vietnamese Barbie.

"So not only did you AI dipshits offended Vietnamese cultures, you also offended East Asian culture as a whole," he added, referencing that in most East Asian cultures, the traditional clothing worn with a right-over-left collar is only spotted on dead people.

—fatma (@tomabintm) July 7, 2023

Additional Barbies were sporting incorrect cultural outfits and headpieces — a few Middle Eastern Barbies wore a ghutra, a traditional headdress for men.

Another issue brought up on Twitter was that several of the AI Barbies were whitewashed.

—yammi (@sighyam) July 9, 2023

The Tajikistan and Thai Barbies were amongst many other Asian Barbies to rock blonde locks instead of the dark hair most Asians naturally have.

Inaccurate AI images aside, Mattel has an official "Barbie Dolls of the World" collection that started in 1980 and comprises 91 Barbies from all continents, per a Barbie collector site Barbie Second Life.

In 2013, Mattel's collection stirred up controversy with the release of Mexican Barbie. Dressed in a pink ruffled dress and holding a pet chihuahua, the doll also came with a passport. 

The Latin Times speculated that the documentation could hint that Mattel supported one side of the immigration issue.

It was later confirmed that all the dolls in the collection come with a passport, per ABC.