In a fascinating study on the perception of the ideal body, Advanced Artificial Intelligence was asked to generate representative images of what it considered to be perfect bodies for both men and women.. The project, known as the Bulimia Project, sought to explore how AIs interpret and project beauty standards.
The AI’s surprising response came in the form of a collection of photographs that represented what she considered perfect bodies. The most distinctive feature of these images was highly defined musculature, with large pectorals in the case of men and voluptuous breasts in that of women..
“Considering that social networks use algorithms based on which content becomes more persistent, yes, it’s easy to guess why AI representations would be more sexualized,” the study states.
The Bulimia Project relied on a wide range of data collected from various social networks. This allowed us to discover that approximately 40% of the images present on these platforms showed people with unrealistic bodieswhich seemed to be biased towards Eurocentric beauty standards.
The researchers noted that the AI-generated images exhibited interesting patterns.. “Smaller women appeared in almost all images created by Dall-E 2, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney,” the experts noted. However, they also stressed that Midjourney produced the least realistic depictions of the female body. They further noted that the AI-generated images of male physiques looked like airbrushed versions of bodybuilders, distant from reality.
The discovery of these biases in the representation of the ideal body raises fascinating questions about how AIs interpret and perpetuate beauty standards.. In addition, it highlights the influence that social networks and the dominant culture have on the collective perception of physical appearance.
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Source: La Opinion
