The Disturbing Truth About AI Beauty | Artificial intelligence

Let’s face it. We’ve all used (and still use) those fun and beautifying filters provided by social media platforms. Aside from beautifying our faces in real time or apps that recommend makeup choices to suit our skin, experts say these current innovations in AI beauty mean complicated outcomes for human users.

Kylie Jenner’s custom filter won’t only let you try different lipstick shades, but would also smoothen your skin, plump up your lips and lengthen your lashes. Facetune on the other hand, was Apple’s top ranking paid app for 2017.

According to Dr Amy Slater, Deputy Director at the University of the West of England’s Centre for Appearance Research, “Many images presented on social media are still conforming to a narrow beauty ideal and the use of filters or modification apps is likely to perpetuate this…The concern is that consistent exposure to ‘perfect’ images will leave people feeling like they don’t ‘measure up’. This can lead to negative feelings including body dissatisfaction, which is known to be a predictor of negative outcomes including lowered self-esteem, depression, disordered eating and lower academic achievement.”

Do you agree that these algorithms and augmented reality apps could raise some psychological and social issues?