AT&T's David C. Williams on how generative AI will force diversity in AI systems

The growth of generative AI has put diversity front and center. 

In the last year, there have been concerns that GenAI systems such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini are not trained with enough diverse data sets. 

For instance, the introduction of the Lensa app two years ago allowed people of color to generate avatars of themselves. Concerns were raised, however, after some users said Lensa's generated images changed their skin color. 

Incidents with AI tools like Lensa show that AI creators might not have enough diversity in their data set. 

Alternatively, there have also been incidents where it's clear that AI systems misrepresented diversity. For example, Google shut down Gemini's image generator earlier this year after users started generating inaccurate depictions of historical figures. For example, it generated images of well-known white people, such as the Pope, as Black people. 

Google has since opened the model back up. Last week, the cloud provider revealed that its new AI model, Imagen 3, will be rolled out to its Gemini AI model. The model will produce images of people again but won't support generation of photorealistic identifiable individuals. 

Despite the hiccup in the beginning stages of the technology, hope exists, said David C. Williams, assistant vice president of automation at AT&T. 

While Williams leads a team that previously used RPA, or robotics process automation, to drive business needs at AT&T, the team is now pivoting to generative AI. The shift has given Williams a view of how GenAI could affect diversity. 

"Generative AI is going to force diversity," Williams said on the latest Targeting AI episode. 

Cloud providers such as Google must include diversity in their data sets because not having it could lead to alienation from people of color, he continued. If creators of these systems fail to have diverse systems that show representation, that could lead many people of color to simply stop using the systems, which won't help their business. 

On the other hand, people of color and women will gain new opportunities because of generative AI. 

"Those that embrace generative AI and figure out how to use it in the workplace will have an incredibly different value proposition than the rest," Williams said. 

Esther Ajao is a TechTarget Editorial news writer and podcast host covering artificial intelligence software and systems. Shaun Sutner is senior news director for TechTarget Editorial's information management team, driving coverage of artificial intelligence, unified communications, analytics and data management technologies. Together, they host the Targeting AI podcast series.