The Rise of AI in Beauty Standards: A Double-Edged Sword
Over the past year, the innovative Miss AI competition has captured headlines globally. This contest featured models generated by artificial intelligence, showcasing impossibly ideal bodies devoid of wrinkles, pores, or even a history. Sponsored by the platform Fanvue World AI Creator Awards, this groundbreaking event sparked not only a flood of discussions but also an essential debate: Are we ready to embrace a beauty ideal represented by something that does not exist? Furthermore, does the real body now appear as a flawed version of a digital render?
Unrealistic Expectations
According to The Columbus Dispatch, plastic surgeons like Dr. Jaclyn Tomsic and Dr. Craig Lehrman are observing a troubling trend in their clinics: patients are arriving with AI-generated images, demanding impossible surgical procedures. “With AI, you can create the body you desire,” explains Tomsic, a maxillofacial surgeon based in Cleveland.
Lehrman, a plastic surgeon at the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University, recounts stories of older patients presenting photos of airbrushed celebrities, lamenting, “They ask, ‘Why don’t I look like this?’ They are 35 years older, and the image is heavily manipulated.” Both surgeons have acknowledged spending increasing amounts of time explaining why they cannot replicate the promises made by AI, as biological realities like bone structure and age cannot simply be erased with a scalpel.
Beyond Surgery
The expectations set by filters, apps, and image generators are causing increasing frustration and danger. Some individuals are undergoing multiple surgeries in pursuit of an nonexistent ideal. There are heightened psychological risks associated with this; those who fail to resemble these artificially crafted images often develop obsessions, turning to excessive surgeries and facing a cycle of ongoing dissatisfaction. Lehrman articulates this concern succinctly: “This will lead many individuals to unhappiness, chasing an imaginary dream.”
This phenomenon extends beyond surgical interventions; it fundamentally alters how we relate to our self-image. More people now turn to AI for assessments of their physical appearance, seeking advice on how to improve their facial aesthetics. The crucial point is not about what AI can conclude but rather about how much weight its judgment holds in shaping our self-perception.
Fiction Made Flesh
Previously, altering an image required technical expertise or creative lighting and makeup tricks. Today, anyone with a free app can transform themselves into a supermodel in a matter of seconds. AI doesn’t just apply edits; it can create faces from scratch. As Lehrman notes, this makes it “increasingly difficult to distinguish between the real and the fabricated.”
In response to this challenge, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons has established a gallery showcasing authentic before-and-after photos of procedures to fight misinformation. Nevertheless, the battle remains uneven, as millions of artificially stylized images proliferate daily, shaping our beauty conceits.
The Aitana Case
This dynamic plays out starkly in cases like that of Aitana López, a Spanish influencer who boasts over 350,000 Instagram followers but does not exist in reality. She is a 100% AI-generated model, designed with the intent that she "never tires, never ages, and always smiles." Her success has not only led to authentic advertising contracts but has also set a troubling new aesthetic standard—one where human limitations are entirely absent.
Advancements and Dilemmas
Research titled Artificial Intelligence in Plastic Surgery: Where Do We Stand? reviewed 96 studies on AI in plastic surgery. While AI has shown promise in tasks like diagnosing skin disorders and surgical planning, the findings have raised concerns about ethics, regulation, and algorithmic biases. One of the key issues is that AI models are trained on data from limited populations, leading to results that may reflect racism, classism, or ableism.
The Bias Behind AI
Algorithms today are trained with millions of images that reinforce Eurocentric, slender, cisgender, and youthful standards. As noted in a study by Kenig et al., AI has the potential to exacerbate inequalities by reinforcing stereotypes and sidelining diverse body types. Critical voices in the tech field, such as author Ruha Benjamin, argue that “algorithmic discrimination does not need hatred to operate; it only requires data from the past.” Similarly, Safiya Noble highlights how commercial and racist logics are embedded within search engines and recommendation systems. Rather than democratizing beauty, technology appears to narrow it further.
Beauty Reimagined
As the writer Bell Hooks once stated, “Representation matters.” However, if AI—trained on exclusionary patterns—dictates which faces we see, which bodies are displayed, and which ones are not, we are witnessing more than an aesthetic shift; we are undergoing a profound reconfiguration of what we consider desirable, achievable, and human. The question isn’t merely "What is beautiful?" but rather, "What are we willing to accept?"
The AI-driven landscape poses complex challenges that demand ethical reflection and action. How we respond today could redefine self-worth and identity in the generations to come.
Images provided by Freepik, Xataka.