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Main Authors: Amara, Ibtihel, Humayun, Ahmed Imtiaz, Kajic, Ivana, Parekh, Zarana, Harris, Natalie, Young, Sarah, Nagpal, Chirag, Kim, Najoung, He, Junfeng, Vasconcelos, Cristina Nader, Ramachandran, Deepak, Farnadi, Golnoosh, Heller, Katherine, Havaei, Mohammad, Rostamzadeh, Negar
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.09833
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author Amara, Ibtihel
Humayun, Ahmed Imtiaz
Kajic, Ivana
Parekh, Zarana
Harris, Natalie
Young, Sarah
Nagpal, Chirag
Kim, Najoung
He, Junfeng
Vasconcelos, Cristina Nader
Ramachandran, Deepak
Farnadi, Golnoosh
Heller, Katherine
Havaei, Mohammad
Rostamzadeh, Negar
author_facet Amara, Ibtihel
Humayun, Ahmed Imtiaz
Kajic, Ivana
Parekh, Zarana
Harris, Natalie
Young, Sarah
Nagpal, Chirag
Kim, Najoung
He, Junfeng
Vasconcelos, Cristina Nader
Ramachandran, Deepak
Farnadi, Golnoosh
Heller, Katherine
Havaei, Mohammad
Rostamzadeh, Negar
contents Concept erasure techniques have recently gained significant attention for their potential to remove unwanted concepts from text-to-image models. While these methods often demonstrate promising results in controlled settings, their robustness in real-world applications and suitability for deployment remain uncertain. In this work, we (1) identify a critical gap in evaluating sanitized models, particularly in assessing their performance across diverse concept dimensions, and (2) systematically analyze the failure modes of text-to-image models post-erasure. We focus on the unintended consequences of concept removal on non-target concepts across different levels of interconnected relationships including visually similar, binomial, and semantically related concepts. To address this, we introduce EraseBench, a comprehensive benchmark for evaluating post-erasure performance. EraseBench includes over 100 curated concepts, targeted evaluation prompts, and a robust set of metrics to assess both effectiveness and side effects of erasure. Our findings reveal a phenomenon of concept entanglement, where erasure leads to unintended suppression of non-target concepts, causing spillover degradation that manifests as distortions and a decline in generation quality.
format Preprint
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publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Erasing More Than Intended? How Concept Erasure Degrades the Generation of Non-Target Concepts
Amara, Ibtihel
Humayun, Ahmed Imtiaz
Kajic, Ivana
Parekh, Zarana
Harris, Natalie
Young, Sarah
Nagpal, Chirag
Kim, Najoung
He, Junfeng
Vasconcelos, Cristina Nader
Ramachandran, Deepak
Farnadi, Golnoosh
Heller, Katherine
Havaei, Mohammad
Rostamzadeh, Negar
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Concept erasure techniques have recently gained significant attention for their potential to remove unwanted concepts from text-to-image models. While these methods often demonstrate promising results in controlled settings, their robustness in real-world applications and suitability for deployment remain uncertain. In this work, we (1) identify a critical gap in evaluating sanitized models, particularly in assessing their performance across diverse concept dimensions, and (2) systematically analyze the failure modes of text-to-image models post-erasure. We focus on the unintended consequences of concept removal on non-target concepts across different levels of interconnected relationships including visually similar, binomial, and semantically related concepts. To address this, we introduce EraseBench, a comprehensive benchmark for evaluating post-erasure performance. EraseBench includes over 100 curated concepts, targeted evaluation prompts, and a robust set of metrics to assess both effectiveness and side effects of erasure. Our findings reveal a phenomenon of concept entanglement, where erasure leads to unintended suppression of non-target concepts, causing spillover degradation that manifests as distortions and a decline in generation quality.
title Erasing More Than Intended? How Concept Erasure Degrades the Generation of Non-Target Concepts
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.09833