What AI Assumed About Me
Dr. Hayden reflects on moments when AI, intended to streamline workflows, unexpectedly creates new bottlenecks and amplifies hidden inefficiencies. Hear candid insights into balancing excitement with judgment during system transitions that challenge established protocols.
Chapter 1
When Something Starts to Feel Off
Dr. Candace Hayden
IT'S ME — THINKING OUT LOUD!... I didn’t go looking for bias. I wasn’t testing for it. I was simply using AI the way I often do — to create images, to experiment with voice, and to express myself artistically. At first, nothing felt alarming. I noticed small inconsistencies, but I brushed them aside. It felt easy to assume it was coincidence or limitation — nothing worth lingering on... But when something repeats, quietly and consistently, it starts to invite attention. Sort of like Maya Angelo saying "When someone shows you who they are, believe them..."
Chapter 2
The Image Pattern — Not a Glitch
Dr. Candace Hayden
Let's slow this down, because this didn’t show up as a critique — it showed up as use. I create a lot of images with AI. Not to test bias or push boundaries, but as an artistic practice — exploring form, tone, and variation the same way I would with any creative medium. That’s the context. So when I prompted for an African-American woman, the outputs followed a pattern.
Dr. Candace Hayden
...Again and again, I saw: Large afros, short afros, locs
Dr. Candace Hayden
Rarely — almost never — did I see: straight hair, soft curls, or contemporary, varied styles. Even when I specified otherwise, the results often circled back to the same representations. Facial features felt harder, less nuanced. It wasn’t offensive in an obvious way — but it was narrow. Eventually, it stopped feeling like a one-off. It felt like a system default. There’s a moment when you stop asking why did it do that? and start asking why does it keep doing that?
Dr. Candace Hayden
I even found myself having conversations with AI — and not casual ones. I was explicit. Almost stern. Pointing out that we were not in the 1970s, and questioning why it seemed to assume that an afro was the default — or even desirable. Not just for me, but for anyone.
Chapter 3
The Voice Shift — Where It Became Personal
Dr. Candace Hayden
What shifted this from observation to concern was voice. I experimented with voice cloning across more than one platform. Another person provided a recording — someone who did not look like me — and the output was remarkably accurate. Minimal correction. Minimal effort. ...
Dr. Candace Hayden
Yet, when it came to my voice, the experience was different. I recorded multiple times. I adjusted pacing. I changed environments. I added pauses, ellipses — anything to influence the output. Even then, the voice didn’t quite land. When my son listened, his reaction cut through any doubt. Why does it make you sound so country? That moment mattered — because it confirmed something I had already been feeling, but wasn't ready to admit. This wasn’t imagination. It wasn’t over analysis. It was difference.
Chapter 4
The Real Question — What Is AI Being Taught to S
Dr. Candace Hayden
This is when it finally started to click. I realized this wasn’t taste. It wasn’t preference. It was assumption, and that's when my curiosity shifted. Not toward blame — but toward training. What does AI think an African-American woman looks like?... What does it think she sounds like?... What representations dominate its learning?... If AI is built on patterns, then whose patterns are considered standard — and whose are not?
Chapter 5
The Quiet Cost
Dr. Candace Hayden
Unfortunately, or maybe not bias doesn’t always announce itself. Sometimes it simply asks certain people to do more work to be represented accurately. I didn’t experience overt hostility — I experienced imprecision. And imprecision has impact — especially when technology becomes a mirror. When the system reflects you back with distortion, the burden quietly shifts to the user to correct it.
Dr. Candace Hayden
...Let me be clear — noticing this didn’t make me angry, but it didn’t leave me neutral either. It left me more alert. More careful about what I assume is “just how the system works.” Once you see a pattern, you don’t get to unsee it. You carry it with you — into how you create, how you listen, and how much effort you’re willing to accept as normal. I didn’t walk away from this with answers. I walked away with responsibility — the responsibility to notice what’s being normalized, and to not rush past it just because it’s inconvenient or subtle.
Chapter 6
Where I Land — For Now
Dr. Candace Hayden
We all know that cultural bias isn’t new. AI doesn’t create it — it reflects it, and reflection matters, because mirrors shape perception over time. I’m not offering solutions here. I’m offering awareness. This felt like the most honest kind of thinking out loud. I’m still paying attention. Still noticing, and I’m still thinking out loud.