"Successful Aging" with Generative AI: Cultural and Ethical Challenges in Representing Aging through Synthetic Imagery

Synthetic imagery produced by Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly transforming how aging is visually represented and culturally understood. This study critically examines GenAI imagery in East Asian contexts, focusing on how representations of “successful aging” are constructed and circulated. Drawing on the Revised Successful Aging (SA) Model, we integrate visual semiotics with cultural gerontology to treat synthetic images as algorithmic artifacts that reflect and reinforce normative ideals of later life. Using critical visual experimentation, we generated and analyzed 288 images via Midjourney, guided by prompts addressing social, affective, and environmental dimensions of aging. Our findings reveal gendered aesthetic norms, class-coded relational tropes, and algorithmic failures tied to ageist language. We argue that GenAI compresses the complexity of aging into stylized, reductive forms that risk amplifying cultural biases. This study calls for age-inclusive, culturally grounded AI design and contributes to interdisciplinary debates on synthetic visuality, representational justice, and AI-mediated culture.