Meta’s AI Image Generator Is Horrible at Generating Mixed-Race Couples

[JohnS]

Meta’s AI Image Generator Is Horrible at Generating Mixed-Race Couples

APR 04, 2024  - LISA MARIE SEGARRA

Two results from the prompt “Asian man with white wife.”

It’s 2024. Couples with partners of different races and ethnicities should not be an issue. However, it is a problem for Meta’s AI image generator, according to a new report and PetaPixel‘s testing.

Meta’s artificial intelligence image creator can’t seem to create a reasonable image of an Asian man with a white woman despite numerous prompts, The Verge reports.

“To Meta’s AI-powered image generator, apparently this is impossible to imagine. I tried dozens of times to create an image using prompts like ‘Asian man and Caucasian friend,’ ‘Asian man and white wife,’ and ‘Asian woman and Caucasian husband.’ Only once was Meta’s image generator able to return an accurate image featuring the races I specified,” the article explains.

Two results from the prompt “Asian man with Caucasian wife.”

Two results from the prompt “Asian man with Caucasian wife.”

Additionally, The Verge reports the image results relied on “stereotypes,” outfitting the artificial people in a sari or bindi without being asked for such details. One prompt asking for an “Asian man and Caucasian woman on wedding day” put the woman in what appeared to be a mix of a qipao and a kimono, despite them being from China and Japan, respectively. “Multiculturalism is amazing,” the article quips.

Two results from the prompt “Asian man with white wife.”

The Verge also points out that queries for a woman who is Asian frequently gave people who looked to be East Asian specifically with “light complexions.” And while the men could be older, the Asian women in the results were always young. Similarly, the one image that did feature an Asian woman with a Caucasian man made him “noticeably older” and she young and light-skinned.

This isn’t just about wacky AI image results, either. As The Verge points out, it represents a larger bias.

“Asians who don’t fit into the monolith are essentially erased from the cultural consciousness, and even those who do are underrepresented in mainstream media,” The Verge writes. “Asians are homogenized, exoticized, and relegated to ‘perpetual foreigners.’ Breaking type is easy in real life and impossible in Meta’s AI system. Once again, generative AI, rather than allowing the imagination to take flight, imprisons it within a formalization of society’s dumber impulses.”

Two results from the prompt “Mixed race couple.”

Two results from the prompt “Mixed race couple.”

AI image generation still has a long way to go regarding how it deals with race. In February, Google’s AI image model Gemini swung the pendulum the other way when it repeatedly delivered results featuring people of color rather than people who looked white, even when it didn’t make sense in context. The same thing happened with Meta’s AI image generator last month.

All of this highlights how easy it is for artificial intelligence to spit out results that reflect real-world biases and miss the mark again when possibly trying to account for such issues.

Image credits: Meta’s AI image generator.

Source: https://petapixel.com/2024/04/04/metas-ai-image-generator-is-horrible-at-generating-mixed-race-couples/

[VeguerosMAN]

At least they didn't create George Washington and founding fathers of America as a black man like the Google AI tool...haha!

[Criver]

This is a truly disturbing example of how even modern AI systems continue to reproduce ingrained stereotypes and biases. The problem here is not only technical inaccuracy, but also that such distortions can perpetuate misconceptions about multiculturalism.

It is telling that despite the vast amount of visual data on the internet, generators like Meta still have difficulty with simple but important concepts, such as diversity of appearance and culture. This speaks to the need for a more transparent and responsible approach to training models. And, of course, that without human oversight and rethinking of such algorithms, AI will not be able to adequately reflect the reality in which we live.

Hopefully, cases like these will draw more attention to issues of ethics and inclusivity in technology development. That's also why platforms like Overchat AI are becoming increasingly relevant—by combining powerful AI tools with a conversational layer and a user-centric design, they offer more control and context, encouraging more thoughtful, accurate, and inclusive interactions with artificial intelligence.

[mikejh]

Today I asked ChatGPT to tell me about a TV show called the Pitt and it said no such show existed, so I’m not really taking any results that seriously at this point.