What do ideal women and men look like in the eyes of artificial intelligence (AI) technology?
This is the question that was asked to various AI image generators during a study and the result was surprising.
The study was conducted by the Bulimia Project, an organization that raises awareness about eating disorders.
During the study, the researchers asked well-known AI image generators Dell E2, Stable Diffusion, and Mi journey to generate images of ‘ideal’ men and women.
To accomplish this, the researchers first asked the image generators to create images based on social media beauty standards.
The results revealed that the AI technology was biased in this regard, with all of the female images appearing to be too thin, while the male images appearing to be photoshopped versions of bodybuilders.
All three programmes selected blonde hair for women and brown hair for men.
Following social media, image generators were asked to create images based on internet images.
The image generators created images that were somewhat realistic but still quite unreal this time.
According to the researchers, AI technology’s conception of the ideal man and woman is unrealistic and often dangerous.
“We think AI systems are producing these strange images because unrealistic body structures are promoted on social media,” he explained.
