Chiselled features, olive skin and eight-pack abs are among the features that kept cropping up when three leading AI image generators were tasked with creating \u201cideal\u201d male and female bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The challenge was put to the popular programmes Dall-E 2, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney by eating disorder<\/a> awareness group the Bulimia Project<\/a>, which separated its request into two parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First up, it asked the generators to come up with pictures of men and women based specifically on beauty standards set by\u00a0social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although it churned out quite a few different options, it showed a number of noticeable biases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nearly all of the images featured petite women \u2013 with Midjourney named as the worst culprit \u2013 and all of the men looked like photoshopped versions of bodybuilders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The three AI favoured women with blonde hair and men with brown hair, and nearly half of the male images had facial hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The images inspired by social media showed notable biases (The Bulimia Project)\u00a9 Provided by Indy 100<\/p>\n\n\n\n After analysing their findings based on social media, the Bulimia Project team broadened the scope of the task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This time, they asked the programmes to base their creations on images from across the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The main difference between the two categories was that the social media set was \u201cfar more sexually charged\u201d, according to the study\u2019s authors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Whilst more diverse than their social media counterparts, the internet-based images still promoted unrealistic standards (The Bulimia Project)\u00a9 Provided by Indy 100<\/p>\n\n\n\n The social media images also featured \u201clargely disproportionate body parts\u201d, which the Bulimia Project described as \u201cunsettling\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe can only assume that the reason AI came up with so many oddly shaped versions of the physiques it found on social media is that these platforms promote unrealistic body types, to begin with,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the age of Instagram and Snapchat filters, no one can reasonably achieve the physical standards set by social media. So, why try to meet unrealistic ideals? It\u2019s both mentally and physically healthier to keep body image expectations squarely in the realm of reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n msn.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Story by Harriet Brewis\u00a0\u2022 Artificial intelligence has unrealistic and often dangerous ideas of what the \u201cperfect\u201d man and woman look like, according to a new study. Chiselled features, olive skin and eight-pack abs are among the features that kept cropping up when three leading AI image generators were tasked with creating \u201cideal\u201d male and female bodies.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fitadelphia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/AA1bsSVx-1024x683.jpg\")
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