The Iconicity of the Generated Image (2509.16473v1)

Abstract: How humans interpret and produce images is influenced by the images we have been exposed to. Similarly, visual generative AI models are exposed to many training images and learn to generate new images based on this. Given the importance of iconic images in human visual communication, as they are widely seen, reproduced, and used as inspiration, we may expect that they may similarly have a proportionally large influence within the generative AI process. In this work we explore this question through a three-part analysis, involving data attribution, semantic similarity analysis, and a user-study. Our findings indicate that iconic images do not have an obvious influence on the generative process, and that for many icons it is challenging to reproduce an image which resembles it closely. This highlights an important difference in how humans and visual generative AI models draw on and learn from prior visual communication.