Artificial Intelligence and Portraits of 17th Century Physicists

The case for customizable AI systems as an alternative to one-size-fits-all AI systems

Joscha Bach recently posted on X his attempt for Google’s Gemini to generate portraits of physicist from the 17th century. The results were interesting for how much they reveal about prevailing normative values in contemporary Western societies.

After trying the prompt (“draw some portraits of 17th century physicists”) myself multiple times on Google’s Gemini, the portrait on the bottom right of the following figure is the closest output I've got to someone who somewhat resembles 17th century physicists Isaac Newton or Galileo Galilei.

That is, when having to choose between historical accuracy and diversity/inclusion, Google’s Gemini prioritizes the later, at least for the particular case above.

Jonathan Haidt has spoken previously about the tension between truth and DEI in situations where they inexorably conflict (like the example above illustrates). A critical societal issue derived from such tension is who gets to decide how present and future AI systems knobs are adjusted in regard to this trade-off.

I think most people would agree that a self-anointed group of elites making those decisions is probably sub-optimal. A more promising alternative might be personalized AI systems were individual users can adjust the knobs themselves and decide for instance how much accuracy/truth they are willing to sacrifice in favor of AI outputs conforming to certain normative values. An obvious risk of such an approach is filter-bubbles on steroids and further societal polarization. But at least users should have the option to choose a truth-seeking AI. Currently with systems such as Google’s Gemini, such an option doesn’t even exist.