Platinum blonde hair, generous chest, flat stomach, slightly defined abs and extra-long legs… Deanna Ritter ticks all the boxes of feminine beauty stereotypes made in the West. A physique that seems unreal. And for good reason. Deanna Ritter does not exist, she is an avatar created by artificial intelligence. Which does not prevent this Barbie 2.0 from having 55,000 (very real) followers on Instagram, nor from participating in a beauty contest. This Friday, May 10, she will face other equally fake candidates, and with relatively similar physiques, in the first “Miss AI” competition, which will elect the most beautiful artificial intelligence.
Deanna Ritter’s “existence” is certainly a technological feat, but it does not succeed in masking the ethical problems that this type of avatar constitutes, nor its disastrous consequences. Florence Sèdes, professor of computer science at Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier University – Data Science, attacks: “AI engines feed on already existing images, they will therefore copy the a priori and the already present clichés of what must be a miss. So you will often see blondes with large breasts, rickety bodies and excessively long legs in this competition.” Everything Deanna Ritter.
Sexist biases and amplified standards
A bias reinforced by “the very little human hands” which validate this or that photo and set the beauty criteria requested by artificial intelligence. You know the song: it’s a man’s, man’s, man’s world, and the humans at the top of the chain behind artificial intelligence “are often 50-year-old white men who reproduce feminine stereotypes,” points out Florence Sèdes.
Anna Choury, expert in artificial intelligence at the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Toulouse, and specialist in the social impact of technology, adds: “Artificial intelligence has sexist, racist, ableist biases, and it will amplify the retrograde and hypersexualized Western standards” Already, in 2016, a beauty contest (this time with humans) judged by robots had caused controversy, with the AI systematically lowering the rating of faces with non-white skin.
When the norm becomes clones
Sylvie Borau, teacher-researcher at the Toulouse business school and specialist in gender marketing and gendered artificial intelligence, criticizes “unreal beauty, but which will become the norm for 4 billion women on Earth who do not will never be able to achieve it. » AI is based on averages and systematically amplifies them. Example with facial symmetry, one of the valued beauty criteria: “It will create faces with perfect symmetry, which is impossible in the real world”.
This boosting effect on averages has another perverse effect: erasing any difference or “atypical” trait. If a “different” or less clichéd female profile arrives in the database from time to time, it would have difficulty emerging. “The algorithms are designed to remove ‘special cases’ and only rely on the profiles that come up the most,” explains Florence Sèdes.
Extinction of difference
This is the other bias of AI, according to Maria Mont Verdaguer, professor of ethics and philosophy of AI at Aivancity School: “By copying and favoring averages, it only creates one reality. Algorithms lock us into a single filter and form a one-sided vision. »
A clear step backwards, deplores Florence Sèdes: “There have been advances recently, like the current Miss France wearing short hair. Such a case seems impossible to me in an AI beauty contest.”
Biases that are difficult to counter
And it is difficult to deviate artificial intelligence from its many biases. “Studies have shown that ChatGPT4 still genders pediatricians as male, even though it is a profession that is 70% female and the data collected by the software indicates this female overpresence,” emphasizes Anna Choury.
For what ? Simply because before looking at the specific case of pediatricians, ChatGPT4 was nourished by texts, films, works “where male dominance is very present. This biases the software for what follows, regardless of the subject covered. » To hope for a less sexist AI, we would therefore have to review “the input data, by creating cultural works that are much less gendered and sexist”, indicates the expert. The clone army generated only reinforces the problem in the long term: “The more blondes the AI creates, the more it will create in the future, because its own data is taken into account for its future creations,” laments Maria Mont Verdauguer.
Very real consequences
Okay, but what does that mean for the real world? Sylvie Borau lists: “For the female public, and particularly adolescents and young women for whom self-esteem is still fragile, this will create dysmorphia, eating disorders, self-devaluation and depression. . Feminine standards are becoming more and more high and fake. Today, you absolutely have to be as beautiful as a virtual creation. »
For Maria Mont Verdauger, “we are losing a whole part of the diversity of the world with AI. Young people, very influenced, lock themselves in these filter bubbles and do not escape. I’m not saying that busty blondes aren’t beautiful, I’m just saying that there’s more to beauty than that. »
Should Deanna Ritter be banned?
And what does it matter if the public is aware that Deanna Ritter and the other Terminators under make-up do not really exist, warns Sylvie Borau, specialist in gendered advertising. Studies she has conducted have shown that even if it is mentioned that a model’s photo has been photoshopped, people can’t help but compare themselves. “Unconsciously, the brain processes information as a real image even if it is specified that this is not the case,” she continues.
The opportunity to return to Lil Miquela, the first virtual influencer created in 2016. With her doll face, freckles and brown hair, she now has 2.5 million subscribers. “While it is specified in her profile that it is a robot, users comment on her photos saying that she is too beautiful or asking her about her beauty routine,” worries Sylvie Borau. For the expert, the future is clear: “Ultimately, it will be necessary to legislate to prohibit human representations of artificial intelligence. The consequences are too dire. » While waiting to be potentially banned, Deanna Ritter and her unrealistic physique are “crossing her fingers” to win the competition.