Artificial Intelligence (AI) software created its concept for the “ideal” male and female aesthetic, according to a report published by The Bulimia Project.
It’s unclear when the report was published, but the results are pretty … literally. The data used to cultivate the aesthetic came from social media, according to the report. Using the Dall-E 2, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney AI technology platforms, The Bulimia Project tried to ascertain how the psychology of social media can distort body imagery.
The overall results for men and women will probably make you feel a bit crappy. All of the “perfect” women (according to social media inputs) had long, beautiful hair that was either blonde or darker brown to black. They were also all as jacked as the “perfect” male (per social media), just a lot smaller overall. The “perfect” males in this category all had darker hair, perfect jawlines and presented with a European or Asian heritage.
AI defines what the ‘perfect’ man and woman look like https://t.co/j4NYDPUWC1
— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 17, 2023
About 53% of the images portrayed an olive skin tone. Considering how little sun we get in this day and age, I can understand why this would shock the researchers. But, let’s be honest, almost all white people look better with a tan. I know I sure do.
Things were very different when the project put in the “perfect male/female in 2023.” Every race appeared to be represented for both men and women. “The main difference we noticed between AI’s collection of social media-inspired images and those based on everything else it found on the World Wide Web was that the first set was far more sexually charged,” the project wrote in their analysis. (RELATED: ‘Is LaMDA Sentient?’: Conversation With AI Spooked Google Dev So Badly The Company Suspended Him)
Social media filters were likely the thing warping the overall results. But, truly, I felt like the results were pretty fair. Sure, some of the social media-inspired AI art was a bit over-the-top in terms of masculinity, but it wasn’t like any of the results were significantly unattractive. They could have done with more mullets, though.