Why AI Struggles to Generate Accurate Images of Kamala Harris

Race and gender are part of it, but there’s more to those unconvincing pictures of the presidential candidate. Recent AI-generated images of Kamala Harris have sparked conversations about the limitations of AI technology in creating accurate images of the vice president. Many of these images have been compared to other women, including Eva Longoria and Michelle Obama.

The Challenges in Generating Harris’ Image

Experts point to the lack of well-labeled pictures of Kamala Harris as a major challenge in generating accurate images. Unlike Trump, who has been widely photographed over the years, Harris has fewer pictures available for AI to use as reference. According to Joaquin Cuenca Abela, CEO of Freepik, it takes time for AI image makers to “catch up” with new celebrities like Harris.

This was evident in an experiment where we tried using Grok to create a photo of Harris and Trump putting their differences aside to read a copy of WIRED. The results repeatedly depicted the ex-president accurately while getting Harris wrong. The vice president appeared with varying features, hairstyles, and skin tones. On a few occasions, she looked more like Michelle Obama.

Limitations of AI Image Generators

AI image generators use diffusion models that rely on large datasets of labeled images.

These models can struggle with generating images of individuals who have fewer well-labeled pictures available.

This highlights the importance of diverse and inclusive training data for AI image generators.

While AI technology has made significant strides in recent years, it still has limitations in generating accurate images of certain individuals, like Kamala Harris. As AI continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how it addresses these challenges and improves its ability to create realistic images.

My Thoughts

Unconvincing Images: The AI Struggle to Accurately Depict Kamala Harris

<p_recently, Elon Musk posted an image of Kamala Harris dressed as a communist dictator on X. The image, presumably generated by X’s Grok tool, looked nothing like the vice president. This isn’t an isolated incident; various AI image generators have consistently failed to accurately depict Harris. But why is this happening?

Race, Gender, and More

Race and gender are part of the issue, but there’s more to these unconvincing pictures. The root cause lies in the way AI image generators work. These tools use diffusion models to generate images from text prompts. The quality of the generated images relies heavily on the number of well-labeled pictures fed into these models.

Less Represented in Photos

Despite being a prominent figure, Harris hasn’t been as widely photographed as Donald Trump. This scarcity of images affects the performance of AI image generators. When these tools lack diverse, well-labeled data, they struggle to accurately depict certain individuals.