Portrait of Allison Cohen

Allison Cohen

allison.cohen@mila.quebec
Senior Manager, Applied Projects

Publications

LIVS: A Pluralistic Alignment Dataset for Inclusive Public Spaces
Rashid A. Mushkani
Shravan Nayak
Hugo Berard
Allison Cohen
Shin (Alexandre) Koseki
Hadrien Bertrand
We introduce the Local Intersectional Visual Spaces (LIVS) dataset, a benchmark for multi-criteria alignment of text-to-image (T2I) models i… (see more)n inclusive urban planning. Developed through a two-year participatory process with 30 community organizations, LIVS encodes diverse spatial preferences across 634 initial concepts, consolidated into six core criteria: Accessibility, Safety, Comfort, Invitingness, Inclusivity, and Diversity, through 37,710 pairwise comparisons. Using Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) to fine-tune Stable Diffusion XL, we observed a measurable increase in alignment with community preferences, though a significant proportion of neutral ratings highlights the complexity of modeling intersectional needs. Additionally, as annotation volume increases, accuracy shifts further toward the DPO-tuned model, suggesting that larger-scale preference data enhances fine-tuning effectiveness. LIVS underscores the necessity of integrating context-specific, stakeholder-driven criteria into generative modeling and provides a resource for evaluating AI alignment methodologies across diverse socio-spatial contexts.
2025-02-27
ArXiv (preprint)
arxiv.org
arxiv.org
LIVS: A Pluralistic Alignment Dataset for Inclusive Public Spaces
Rashid A. Mushkani
Shravan Nayak
Hugo Berard
Allison Cohen
Shin (Alexandre) Koseki
Hadrien Bertrand
2025-02-27
ArXiv (preprint)
arxiv.org
arxiv.org