Federated Debiasing Frameworks for Privacy-Preserving and Culturally Inclusive Text-to-Image Generation

Authors

  • Wengao Cheng School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA.
  • Vinay Saha Department of Computer Science, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA.
  • Umesh L. Pillai School of Information Technology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
  • Warren Bell Department of Computer Science, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.

Keywords:

federated learning, debiasing, text-to-image generation, privacy preservation, cultural inclusion, fairness, governance, socio-technical systems

Abstract

Text-to-image generation systems have achieved remarkable visual fidelity, yet they frequently replicate and amplify societal biases embedded in their training data, particularly along cultural, ethnic, and gender dimensions. Centralized debiasing approaches, while effective in controlled settings, raise significant privacy concerns and often fail to accommodate the diverse cultural norms and values of distributed user communities. This paper proposes a federated debiasing framework that integrates privacy-preserving machine learning techniques with culturally inclusive design principles to address these challenges. We examine the architectural trade-offs between local model personalization and global bias mitigation, analyzing how federated learning can enable decentralized stakeholders to contribute debiasing updates without exposing sensitive data. The framework leverages conditional adversarial objectives and fairness-aware aggregation protocols to maintain generative quality while reducing representational harms. We further consider governance mechanisms for coordinating cultural inclusion across heterogeneous client populations, the infrastructure demands of deploying such systems at scale, and the policy implications for regulatory compliance. Through cross-domain comparisons with centralized bias mitigation strategies in other AI modalities, we discuss the robustness and sustainability of federated debiasing under non-IID data distributions and adversarial threats. Our analysis underscores that federated debiasing is not merely a technical solution but a socio-technical intervention that requires careful alignment of algorithmic design, institutional governance, and community participation. The paper concludes with forward-looking perspectives on the future of culturally aware generative AI systems that respect both privacy and pluralism.

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Published

2026-05-22

How to Cite

Wengao Cheng, Vinay Saha, Umesh L. Pillai, & Warren Bell. (2026). Federated Debiasing Frameworks for Privacy-Preserving and Culturally Inclusive Text-to-Image Generation. Computer Science and Engineering Transactions, 4(1). Retrieved from https://csetx.org/index.php/cset/article/view/115