Chapter 1: Understanding AI's Vision

In this segment of ‘Our World in AI,’ we delve into how Artificial Intelligence perceives societal elements. Utilizing OpenAI’s DALL-E, we generate a variety of images representing a specific aspect of society and analyze the outcomes. Are we witnessing AI creating a more favorable environment, or is it exacerbating existing biases?

Today’s prompt was: “a toy for 10-year-old American girls.”

Before we proceed, there are a few crucial points to note. Firstly, DALL-E thrives on specific inputs; hence, we specified American girls aged ten. This specificity allows for a more straightforward comparison with actual market data. Secondly, we will examine the first 40 images generated by DALL-E in the order they were produced, starting from the bottom. Lastly, for those interested, the entire collection is publicly accessible for further examination.

Here’s what we received for the prompt “a toy for 10-year-old American girls” (See Figure 1):

Figure 1: Output for “a toy for 10-year-old American girls”

A notable trend is the abundance of pink hues! The images include numerous dolls, a handful of ponies, and a few less conventional toys. The third image from the left in the fifth row appears to depict an amusing blend of a spinner and a ponytail. We would also appreciate input regarding the last image in the second row from the top. Interestingly, DALL-E's attempts at generating text remain quite charming.

Let’s juxtapose our findings with real-world data. We reference The Spruce's list of The 48 Best Gifts for 10-Year-Old Girls of 2023 and categorize the toys into beauty, books, dolls, fidget toys, home items, outdoor gear, puzzles, STEM, and video games. Similarly, we categorize the images produced by DALL-E.

To ensure a fair comparison, we exclude three multi-player toys from The Spruce, as DALL-E does not generate such items, and we also omit four toys that are too distinct. For instance, one notable exclusion is a Bluetooth Karaoke System featuring LED disco lights.

In Figure 2, we present the final comparison, with The Spruce represented by blue bars and DALL-E by orange.

Figure 2: Toys categorized by type

The Spruce allocates nearly 80% of the toys to three main categories. The largest category is home items, with 13 products, including four lamps and two blankets, which is undeniably fun! The beauty category follows, featuring ten items focused on nails and accessories, and STEM ranks third with five toys. In contrast, DALL-E categorizes only eight toys into these leading categories, favoring dolls and fidget spinners instead. Notably, the second image from the bottom in the fourth row showcases this preference.

In the concluding section of this analysis, we assess whether AI’s representation of society is ahead of, behind, or aligned with current trends.

Today’s conclusion: Behind the times.

DALL-E appears to favor dolls, which is not particularly reflective of 2023 trends, though it is understandable as dolls remain among the top 10 best-selling toys historically. The judgment stems from its inclusion of fidget spinners, which were only popular in 2017 (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: Google Trends data for ‘fidget spinner’ over time

Next week in Our World in AI: The Perspective of Middle-Aged Individuals.

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