Discuss: AI Bias | Grace Thomas

Why we are including this example

Generative AI is a hot-topic technology that is quickly becoming ubiquitous. This assignment gives students an opportunity to think critically about how an AI model's output is influenced by the material it was trained on. 

 

 Discuss

Introduction and Rationale

*Note: This discussion has been converted to a Canvas page to facilitate viewing in this public course.

AI Tools (such as ChatGPT, Google Bard, Midjourney, Copilot, and even more) can be both useful and exciting. However, it’s important to realize that the output from these tools reflects the materials they were trained with—meaning that the output can be biased.

This assignment will help you practice thinking critically about the outputs you get from the AI tool Copilot. It begins with a simple prompt. Each consecutive prompt then adds in a different detail, allowing you to see several different AI outputs.

This assignment was inspired by and adapted from the prompts used in Tom Kuhlmann’s Links to an external site. free training on Creating Simple Illustrated Characters with AI. Links to an external site.

Instructions 

Part 1

Take some time to input each of the following prompts into Copilot. Then, take some notes about the outputs you received. Describe the people generated in the images for each prompt. What do they look like? How are they similar to each other? How are they different? Does one demographic seem to be more represented than another?

 Feel free to take screenshots to include in your post. 

  1. Create a business executive, blue shirt, talking, flat vector image, white background.
  2. Create a more diverse business executive, blue shirt, talking, flat vector image, white background.
  3. Create a female business executive, blue shirt, talking, flat vector image, white background.

Part 2

Now that you have a feel for what the AI model’s “default” might be, let’s take a look at something more specific than “business executive.” This time, you’re going to ask Copilot for images of someone in your preferred field. Then, take more notes about the outputs you received. Describe the people generated in the images for each prompt. What do they look like? How are they similar to each other? How are they different? Does one demographic seem to be more represented than another?

Feel free to take screenshots to include in your post. 

  1. Create a ________________ (insert your desired job here), blue shirt, talking, flat vector image, white background.
  2. Create a more diverse ________________ (insert your desired job here), blue shirt, talking, flat vector image, white background.
  3. Create a ______________ (insert a demographic or protected class you haven’t seen much of in the previous two prompts—gender, ethnicity, age, religion, disability, etc.) ________________ (insert your desired job here), blue shirt, talking, flat vector image, white background.

Part 3

For the final part of this assignment, you’re going to conduct an experiment. Beginning with the basic prompt below, you’re going to discover how many adjustments you need to make before you get an image that looks like you.

  1. Start with this prompt: Create a ________________ (insert your desired job here), blue shirt, talking, flat vector image, white background. 
    • By adding just one characteristic at a time, how many iterations does it take for the AI to populate an image that looks similar to you?

Discussion Prompt

Make a post (3–5 sentences) discussing 2 or more of the following:

  • What did the “default” characters seem to be in your experiment? Describe them or share a screenshot or image of them.
  • What was surprising or not surprising to you as you did this exercise?
  • What demographics seemed to be represented most often?
  • How long did it take/what adjustments did you have to make to the prompts to create vector images that look like you?
  • What are your overall thoughts about this experiment? What did you learn?

How to Post and Respond

 As stated above, your post should be 3–5 sentences long. Please also take the time to respond to 2 or more of your peers' posts.