Coding Hair, Coding Identity: AI-Generated Storyworlds and Representations of Blackness

Abstract

This study examines how Artificial Intelligence portrays Blackness within the settings of children's picture book stories with a focus on the theme of hair, which is a highly significant symbol of culture and identity. At that point, identity is seen as both a social construct and an expressive marker, and AI encodes it with race, body, and belonging in the stories. This study also explores an understanding of racism and race in the context of AI. Using three AI-generated short stories written for children aged 3-6, this paper demonstrates how AI conceptualizes Black hair in relation to different expressions of cultural identity through its portrayal in the stories and everyday experiences. Each story is told from the perspective of the protagonists, an African American, a Caribbean American, and an Afro-Latinx American child, and thus each represents how AI narratives reproduce, identify with, or challenge representations of Black hair. While these narratives appear to affirm Black identity, the analysis reveals that such affirmations remain constrained by algorithmic repetition, coded whiteness, and limited historical depth. By comparing these AI-generated storyworlds, the study demonstrates how algorithmic imagination translates hair as a cultural symbol in three distinct contexts: African American, Caribbean American, and Afro-Latinx American. The essential questions of the paper are How does AI consider Blackness in the picture book story settings? From which perspectives does AI focus on the theme of Black hair? What are the implications of AI's creative authorship for race-conscious children's literature? Ultimately, this research explores whether AI can create inclusive settings that affirm Black identity, rather than producing stereotypical images.