AI Images Still Associate Genius with Men

Images produced by artificial intelligence are not just neutral depictions of the world, but can reinforce deeply rooted perceptions of who is intelligent and talented. A new study examines a phenomenon called brilliance bias: the notion that exceptional intelligence is primarily a male trait. Psychological research has previously shown that children as young as about six years old begin to adopt the idea that 'truly smart' people are more often men than women. This belief often continues into adulthood and can influence, for example, who is considered suitable for demanding professions or scientific work. The newly published study expands the examination of the phenomenon to AI, which generates images based on text prompts. Researchers analyzed popular image generation systems like Midjourney, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion to determine what kinds of people these models depict when asked for images of exceptionally intelligent or 'brilliant' individuals. The results show that these systems also carry the brilliance bias. When the models create images of the pinnacle of intelligence, they typically produce characters coded as male. Thus, the models reinforce the negative and erroneous perception that special talent is inherently a male trait. According to the researchers, detecting the bias is important because AI images are widely spread in education, media, and everyday online services. If intelligence is repeatedly presented as a male attribute, it can narrow the perception of who can be talented and whose expertise is considered credible. The study calls for the recognition and correction of brilliance bias so that AI-generated images provide a more realistic view of people's intellectual abilities and support a broader understanding of talent. Source: What does genius look like? Investigating brilliance bias in AI-generated images, AI & SOCIETY.