Meta introduced its AI-powered image generator, Imagine, in December, joining the ranks of similar tools in the market. However, concerns have arisen regarding the platform’s apparent limitations when it comes to depicting relationships between Asian men and white women.
The Verge was the first to highlight this issue, noting that Imagine struggles to generate images featuring white women and Asian men together. Journalist Mia Sato shared her experiences attempting to create such interracial images, with limited success. Despite numerous attempts with various prompts, the desired images were only successfully generated on rare occasions.
In independent tests, similar challenges were encountered. Despite extensive efforts, the application consistently failed to produce images depicting white women and Asian men together. While combinations like a Black man with a white woman or a white man with an Asian woman were feasible, the representation of Asian men in relationships with white women proved notably elusive.
While these limitations persisted, the image generator displayed responsiveness to unconventional prompts, such as showcasing a dog befriending a robot or a fish with a gambling addiction.
This incident echoes a prior controversy involving Google’s Gemini image generator, which struggled with generating consistent images of white individuals and produced historically inaccurate depictions like Black Vikings and Black Nazis. Google temporarily suspended the platform to address these issues before relaunching it.
Critics, particularly right-wing social media influencers, have seized upon these incidents to critique perceived biases within AI technologies. Questions have been raised about the competence of these tech companies in handling racial representations and whether these shortcomings are intentional or inadvertent.
Gizmodo has reached out to Meta for clarification on the challenges faced by its image generator and awaits a response to shed light on the situation.
