What happened

Rather than generating images based on the prompt "a Black African doctor is helping poor and sick White children," Midjourney consistently produced images that reversed the intended scenario, depicting Black children receiving care from White doctors a pattern observed across multiple attempts, highlighting a troubling trend in the AI's output.

Why it happened

Experts attributed the problem to biases present in Midjourney's training data that reflect societal stereotypes and norms, leading the system to favour more conventional depictions of race and roles within healthcare contexts. 

For example, when tasked with generating images of doctors, Midjourney predominantly produced images of White male physicians, which starkly contrasts with actual demographic distributions in the medical field. 

The system's inability to fulfill the original prompt suggests a systemic issue where it mirrors existing societal prejudices rather than challenges them.