Chanel CEO Leena Nair calls out ChatGPT's gender bias in AI-generated imagery. OpenAI responds

Leena Nair, who has consistently championed gender diversity in corporate leadership, said the image failed to reflect Chanel’s actual workforce—76 percent of whom are women, including the CEO herself. (Image credit: LinkedIn)

Chanel’s global CEO Leena Nair, the second woman to lead the legacy luxury brand, has publicly criticised OpenAI’s ChatGPT for generating a gender-biased image that misrepresented the company’s leadership.

During a talk at Stanford Graduate School of Business last October, Nair recounted her visit to Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters, where she and her team experimented with ChatGPT. “We’re like, ‘Show us a picture of a senior leadership team from Chanel visiting Microsoft’—it is all men in suits,” Fortune quoted her as saying. “It was a 100 percent male team, not even in fashionable clothes. Like, come on. This is what you’ve got to offer?”

Nair, who has consistently championed gender diversity in corporate leadership, said the image failed to reflect Chanel’s actual workforce—76 percent of whom are women, including the CEO herself. She also pointed out that 96 percent of Chanel’s clientele is female, making the AI-generated depiction not just inaccurate but fundamentally disconnected from the brand’s identity.

The incident occurred during Chanel’s broader push into artificial intelligence, which includes tools like Lipscanner, an AI-powered app launched in 2021 that allows users to virtually try on lipstick. Nair’s Silicon Valley visit also included stops at Google and other tech firms, underscoring the brand’s interest in integrating AI into its luxury retail strategy.

The ChatGPT image, however, prompted serious concerns about bias in generative AI. “This is what you’ve got to offer?” Nair asked, highlighting the disconnect between AI outputs and real-world diversity.

An OpenAI spokesperson acknowledged the issue and told Fortune that bias remains a significant challenge in artificial intelligence.

“We are continuously iterating on our models to reduce bias and mitigate harmful outputs,” the spokesperson said.