Abstract

This essay explores how generative AI is reshaping societal perceptions of beauty. It argues that AI reinforces unrealistic beauty standards by promoting idealized, youth-centered images, contributing to increased cosmetic surgery demand and mental health issues. Drawing on expert commentary and case studies, it highlights racial and gender biases in AI systems and the repetitive, homogenized nature of AI-generated content. Despite this, the essay anticipates a cultural shift toward authentic, diverse human beauty as AI’s influence plateaus. Drawing on Martin Heidegger’s concept of "enframing," it suggests that an attitudinal change toward technology, one that values contemplation alongside convenience, can help resist reductive standards. Ultimately, the essay calls for a balanced coexistence with AI that upholds the dignity, diversity, and mystery of human beauty in an increasingly digital world.

Keywords

Generative AI, Beauty Standards, Representation, Mental Health, Heideggerian Philosophy

Introduction

In this essay, I argue that AI will further entrench unrealistic expectations of human physical beauty, resulting in heightened pressure on vulnerable individuals, an increase in demand for cosmetic surgery, and eventual societal resistance to such pressures. This essay consists of four parts. First, I provide an operative definition of generative AI and outline how cosmetic and creative industries use it to create an ideal of physical beauty rooted in youth for marketing purposes. Second, I draw upon professional opinions which illustrate that these uses of AI will continue to exacerbate unrealistic beauty standards and contribute to mental health issues among young people. Third, I draw on recent news and insights from scholars to argue that the influence of AI will eventually plateau, leading to a societal pivot toward more authentic human preferences and expectations of beauty. I conclude that this shift can be facilitated and rendered sustainable by an attitudinal change toward technology proposed by Martin Heidegger, which allows for the integration of AI into marketing and creative industries without its warping expectations.

 1. AI and the generation of young beauty

‘Generative AI’ is the collective term for machine-learning models utilising algorithms trained to create new data in the form of images, video, and text, rather than making a prediction about a specific dataset (Zewe; Nvidia). Within the cosmetics and skincare industries, the integration of generative AI announces a new era of customisation and precision, and in this connection, L'Oréal, the cosmetics industry leader, has recently announced a plan to integrate AI which utilises ‘the augmented reality and artificial intelligence entity, ModiFace’ (L’Oreal). Myriam Bekkar-Schneider, the General Manager of Vichy, has also emphasised the skincare benefits that the technology brings, allowing ‘women to obtain a personal diagnostic to better understand their skin ageing and to find a skincare routine tailor-made for them’ (Bekkar-Schneider).

Yet these developments have come with significant and pressing issues related to diversity and representation. In the beauty industry, concerns about generative AI centre around social and cultural biases. In this connection, Joy Buolamwini conducted a revealing investigation on skin type and gender bias in AI from companies such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM. These systems performed better on light-skinned faces than on dark-skinned faces, with error rates for lighter-skinned men less than 1% compared to over 30% for darker-skinned women (Shacknai). Accordingly, this study may suggest that generative AI could further entrench or even promote racial inequalities by insufficiently representing certain groups and diversity within them.

Other concerns arise from the low-cost or even no-cost generation of images that generative AI brings, as well as the fact that soon, most online data will be AI-generated (with Nina Schick, a world-leading authority on AI, suggesting that 90% will be AI-generated by 2025) (Yahoo Finance). As AI advances, it may automate up to 26% of work tasks in the arts, design, entertainment, media, and sports sectors (Torkington). This does not bode well for creative expression: ‘If cheaply made generative AI undercuts authentic human content, there’s a real risk that innovation will slow down over time as humans make less and less new art and content’ (De Cremer). The danger is that generative AI brings an influx of repetitive content. More on this later with regard to what shall be referred to as ‘redundancy’.

 2. Plastic surgeons and psychologists on AI, youth and beauty

In addition to issues pertaining to diversity, generative AI and its pervasiveness across all industries and areas of society bring with them concerns over how they will affect beauty standards and mental well-being. In this connection, Jennifer Levine warns that the normalisation of highly manipulated images of human faces and bodies can lead to a noticeable impact on beauty standards. Levine claims that ‘We’re being exposed to highly altered images and people are beginning to view these as beauty standards’ (Harris). She highlights the pervasive influence of digitally created images on societal standards of beauty, which have increased pressure on viewers to pursue unrealistic ideals.

Steven William of The American Society of Plastic Surgeons also advocates caution with AI content, specifically on the differences between digital content and authentic human features. ‘AI can make smart filters and images not based in reality ( . . . ) [enabling people to look] ( . . . ) like their avatar or not wanting to age at all’ (William). For example, Snapchat features a filter that changes the appearance of one’s face to a younger version. Such filters may result in anxiety about appearance and age, and lead to an increase in demand for cosmetic surgery. William predicts that as generative AI evolves, ‘we will see an increase in unrealistic expectations of eternal beauty, perfect form and figures on social media that becomes a part of our society’s fabric’ (William).