Position: Fairness Failure in Generative Models is an Evaluation Problem
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Computer Science > Machine Learning
Title:Position: Fairness Failure in Generative Models is an Evaluation Problem
Abstract:Despite groundbreaking advancements in generative models during the last decade, concerns about their lack of fairness, reinforcing societal inequalities and harming marginalized groups, remain under-addressed and difficult to act upon. This position paper argues that fairness failures in generative models, albeit driven by multiple factors, are ultimately stemming from an evaluation problem: fairness findings are rarely comparable across papers or actionable for deployment decisions. This paper diagnoses recurring empirical and conceptual failure modes in current practice and motivates a shift from ad-hoc bias checks to standardized, generative-specific evaluation. We propose Fairness Cards as a minimal reporting artifact that makes evaluation choices explicit (prompt families, counterfactual protocols, metrics, and refusal handling) enabling reproducibility, comparability, and accountability. We conclude with additional recommendations towards a paradigm shift in evaluation standards. Our project page can be found at this https URL .
| Comments: | Accepted at ICML 2026 (Position Paper Track), cf. this https URL |
| Subjects: | Machine Learning (cs.LG); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI) |
| Cite as: | arXiv:2608.16974 [cs.LG] |
| (or arXiv:2608.16974v1 [cs.LG] for this version) | |
| https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.16974
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
|
Submission history
From: Jean-Yves Franceschi [view email][v1] Mon, 17 Aug 2026 14:41:28 UTC (4,108 KB)
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