2024 is already a historic year: for the first time in the history of international beauty pageants, a computer-generated beauty queen will be crowned.
Virtual influencer Kenza Leili beat 1,500 other contestants to be crowned the first-ever Miss AI.
The fictional character, wearing a golden hijab, was created by Myriam Bessa, founder and head of Moroccan AI agency Atelier Digital, and received the World Creator Award on July 8.
Mango leads AI-generated ad campaign
Will real-life models soon become history? Whether we can answer that question or not, we can be sure that artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the fashion industry.
For a glimpse of the future, look no further than Spanish fashion company Mango, which didn’t film any real people in its ad campaign for its Sunset Dream collection: The clothes are real, but the models are generated by AI.
This isn’t the first time the fashion industry has used AI: Earlier this year, jeans icon Levi’s made headlines with a partnership with Lalaland.ai, a Dutch startup that creates customized AI generative models for e-commerce.
“The integration of AI into the fashion industry is proving to be a game-changer,” wrote Max Dewod of US digital marketing company ReVerb in May 2024. “The integration of AI into the fashion industry is proving to be a game-changer. Brands such as Zara, H&M, Stitch Fix, Nike, Levi’s, ASOS and Burberry are just a few examples of how AI can enhance trend forecasting, personalize shopping experiences, improve customer service and support sustainable practices.”
Dove: “A real woman”
One brand that’s refusing to go along with this trend is Dove. In a statement released in May, the beauty brand owned by British consumer goods maker Unilever promised that it “will never use AI images in place of real women” and that it “will never use digital distortion to present an unattainable, manipulated, flawless image of ‘perfect’ beauty promoted by the use of retouching tools.”
Dove’s report, “The State of Beauty: A Global Report,” released in April, revealed that the “perfect” looks of AI models and influencers are putting pressure on real-world girls, and especially young women, to change their appearance.
“Globally, half of women and girls aged 14 to 17 believe that cosmetic surgery is a way to feel more confident about their bodies,” the report said, with this trend especially prevalent in Brazil (69%) and China (56%).
To prepare the report, researchers spoke to about 33,000 people in 20 countries, including around 14,000 women and 4,000 men aged 18 to 64, and around 9,500 girls and 4,700 boys aged 10 to 17.
Men feel they don’t have enough muscle
Men and boys also feel pressured to change their appearance: The researchers found that “79% of men and 74% of boys believe they do not have enough muscle mass.”
“Globally, 68% of men and 59% of boys feel pressured to be physically attractive.”
Brazilian activist Beta Boecchat, a co-author of the report, told DW that people in general are becoming more dissatisfied with their appearance.
“The more tools we have to change our appearance, the more pressure we feel to physically achieve these digital beauty ideals in real life,” she said.
One piece of evidence of this, she explained, is the rise of cosmetic surgery around the world, which has become easier and more affordable: “This puts more pressure on people to optimise.” [their bodies]Not just men, but women too.”
The gap between digital ideals and reality
Helmut Leder, professor of psychology and empirical aesthetics at the University of Vienna, is also concerned about the pressures that come from the discrepancy between digital beauty ideals and real-life appearance.
“This is a very serious issue,” he told DW. “The artificially generated faces have no skin blemishes, are perfectly proportioned and almost everything matches the accepted ideals of beauty.”
“In a world where we are confronted not with real people but with a multitude of artificially decorated faces, the individual’s desire to be attractive and beautiful is enormous.”
For the creators of the Finnish AI model Mila Sofia, virtual models and influencers are nothing spectacular, just examples of the social change that AI can bring about. They have tried to allay concerns by letting the models express themselves on their own website.
“For years, social media has been beautified by ‘artificial intelligence’ – hugely popular filters – so ideals of beauty have long been distorted,” her statement read. “Artificial intelligence only makes change easier and in some ways is just another step forward on what has come before.”
British beauty expert Sally Ann Fawcett, who served as a judge for the Miss AI 2024 beauty pageant, sees the AI revolution in the fashion industry as an opportunity to boost female visibility.
“In the ’70s, the majority of pageants were run and judged by men,” she told US. time Magazine: “These days, 95% [the UK] “Run by women and judged by women”
But Boecchat worries that the body positivity movement, which has worked for decades to eliminate unrealistic and discriminatory beauty ideals, is on the verge of setbacks – and he told DW the setbacks are already noticeable.
“AI comes at a sensitive time for society,” Boecchat said. “Aesthetic demands are on the rise and the movement against the worship of the body and its power is on the wane.”
Additional reporting by Yakov Leon.
This article was originally written in German.
