Human Learning by Model Feedback: The Dynamics of Iterative Prompting with Midjourney

Shachar Don-Yehiya, Leshem Choshen, Omri Abend


Abstract
Generating images with a Text-to-Image model often requires multiple trials, where human users iteratively update their prompt based on feedback, namely the output image. Taking inspiration from cognitive work on reference games and dialogue alignment, this paper analyzes the dynamics of the user prompts along such iterations. We compile a dataset of iterative interactions of human users with Midjourney. Our analysis then reveals that prompts predictably converge toward specific traits along these iterations. We further study whether this convergence is due to human users, realizing they missed important details, or due to adaptation to the model’s “preferences”, producing better images for a specific language style. We show initial evidence that both possibilities are at play. The possibility that users adapt to the model’s preference raises concerns about reusing user data for further training. The prompts may be biased towards the preferences of a specific model, rather than align with human intentions and natural manner of expression.
Anthology ID:
2023.emnlp-main.253
Volume:
Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing
Month:
December
Year:
2023
Address:
Singapore
Editors:
Houda Bouamor, Juan Pino, Kalika Bali
Venue:
EMNLP
SIG:
Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:
4146–4161
Language:
URL:
https://aclanthology.org/2023.emnlp-main.253
DOI:
10.18653/v1/2023.emnlp-main.253
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Shachar Don-Yehiya, Leshem Choshen, and Omri Abend. 2023. Human Learning by Model Feedback: The Dynamics of Iterative Prompting with Midjourney. In Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, pages 4146–4161, Singapore. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
Human Learning by Model Feedback: The Dynamics of Iterative Prompting with Midjourney (Don-Yehiya et al., EMNLP 2023)
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PDF:
https://aclanthology.org/2023.emnlp-main.253.pdf
Video:
 https://aclanthology.org/2023.emnlp-main.253.mp4