Varif.ai to Vary and Verify User-Driven Diversity in Scalable Image Generation

Diversity in image generation is essential to ensure fair representations and support creativity in ideation. Hence, many text-to-image models have implemented diversification mechanisms. Yet, after a few iterations of generation, a lack of diversity becomes apparent, because each user has their own diversity goals (e.g., different colors, brands of cars), and there are diverse attributions to be specified. To support user-driven diversity control, we propose Varif.ai that employs text-to-image and Large Language Models to iteratively i) (re)generate a set of images, ii) verify if user-specified attributes have sufficient coverage, and iii) vary existing or new attributes. Through an elicitation study, we uncovered user needs for diversity in image generation. A pilot validation showed that Varif.ai made achieving diverse image sets easier. In a controlled evaluation with 20 participants, Varif.ai proved more effective than baseline methods across various scenarios. Thus, this supports user control of diversity in image generation for creative ideation and scalable image generation.