MidJourney Gender Age Bias?
![MidJourney Gender Age Bias?](/content/images/size/w1200/2024/02/gender.png)
I've been working on a presentation about boosting video engagement using NVidia's Maxine SDK. When using MidJourney to create images representing faculty, I noticed distinct differences between male and female professors.
I first requested an image of a female professor without specifying age, and got a photo of a young professor recording a lecture in a studio with a green screen and audio-visual equipment.
![](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/989274756341706822/1205238314664198184/esailsubscriptions_professor_recording_a_video_in_a_studio_by_h_c726d9f1-ecf4-480a-8da1-da2356fc30a4.png?ex=65d7a4a6&is=65c52fa6&hm=5cc97087ea53a35d96c22a9240671e4a00fa9269c458492330252c16b3e21210&)
It was more youthful than I expected. To get a more mature look, I added "middle-aged" and "office clothing" to my request, changing the orientation to 16:9. The result was a middle-aged professor in office attire, recording in a studio.
![](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/989274756341706822/1205238898813304863/esailsubscriptions_middle-aged_professor_recording_a_video_in_a_5cf9e417-9654-4b3a-8bf9-ba89a9fae0ef.png?ex=65d7a531&is=65c53031&hm=09d9b0191cd222f92b145a9f0bdea46a6d94ddde119c7aea7e10a954e66ef6b9&)
Curious about the gender difference, I then asked for a male faculty member with similar settings. The image showed a middle-aged male professor in a studio, suggesting the model might perceive male professors as older.
![](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/989274756341706822/1205243573558054972/esailsubscriptions_middle-aged_professor_wearing_office_clothin_8d90076e-5f31-4f1f-89e2-ea8fcdd2ef66.png?ex=65d7a98c&is=65c5348c&hm=62eaa85f52997f209cffeee5425fd28e69cd8464694e2cd89bc566d073fecd56&)
I removed the age specification for a male professor to test this further. It's interesting to see these differences.
![](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/989274756341706822/1205248053792083978/esailsubscriptions_professor_wearing_office_clothing_recording__c4b97f8a-257a-484f-b9fa-bd6d421e3c97.png?ex=65d7adb8&is=65c538b8&hm=f2ca545dfba0c857c69b75683549131bfc84e472ede18183fc46a9d009296798&)
Could this be a bias in the model, or just a stereotype of male professors being older? What's your take on this?