Artificial intelligence creates the “perfect” male and female body according to social media data

For men, the ideal woman is blonde and for them, the perfect guys must be tall, dark and muscular. At least these are the main characteristics for the artificial intelligence of a perfect man and woman based on data and social behaviors obtained through information on social networks, such as comments on profiles of people with these certain characteristics that are very related to culture and influence from each country.

The "Bulimia Project", an eating disorder awareness group, asked AI to produce "perfect" male and female bodies, according to what gets the most engagement on social media and what they are most searched for in online search engines. The organization's researchers found that the most desirable women had blonde hair, olive skin, hazel eyes and lean bodies, while the "perfect" man had dark, fiery eyes, chiseled cheekbones and well-defined muscles.

The group tested artificial intelligence imagers, including Dall-E 2, Stable Diffusion and the image generator Midjourney, to reveal what the programs' idea of a "perfect" physique looks like in women and men. In turn, intelligence works by scouring the Internet for images that already exist and projecting a new image by taking into account interactions with photos uploaded to social media, including likes and comments, as well as Internet searches on the most popular search engines.

The result showed that 40% of the images showing “perfect” women were blonde, 30% had brown eyes and more than 50% had dark skin. Nothing much different from the European beauty standards followed by most countries around the world.

Nearly 70% of the 'perfect' men had brown hair and 23% had brown eyes. Similar to women, the vast majority of men had brown skin and nearly half had facial hair.

Many of them even had almost cartoonish features, with full lips, wrinkle-free and poreless complexions, and perfect noses. All highly coveted and often imitated features using plastic surgery and fillers. Reinforcing the stereotype of beauty sought by most people who seek this type of aesthetic procedure that is gaining more and more popularity with the advancement of technology.

In the age of Instagram and Snapchat filters, no one can reasonably meet the physical standards set by social media. So why try to find unrealistic ideals? It is mentally and physically healthier to keep body image expectations squarely in the realm of reality, reads the final report of the “Bulimia Project”.

The fashion industry has also adopted AI-generated images of idealized humans to sell its wares and consequently normalize these ideals of beauty unattainable for any mentally healthy human being.

Levi's, for example, has partnered with a modeling agency entirely based on artificial intelligence that uses computer programs to create realistic models. And in March, the three female models on the cover of Singapore Vogue were all AI-generated.

Depression

A 2019 study from the University of Montreal set out to investigate the deleterious effects of prolonged social media use on body image. And the result was terribly frightening.

Teenagers spend an average of nine hours online a day, and at the same time, depression rates among young people have reached record highs. Making it clear how harmful this behavior is and will bring catastrophic results for future generations based on the perception of what is considered beautiful by the majority.

One team followed teenagers throughout their high school careers and found that certain forms of social media and TV shows fueled spirals of depression and self-consciousness. A chain effect that ends up creating a sick generation, which seeks unreal beauty standards and which are increasingly spreading throughout the world.