Beauty pageants have been around for around 200 years, but recently, the world's first beauty pageant, “Miss AI,” was launched, featuring AI-generated influencers and models.
The competition was created by the World AI Creator Awards in partnership with Fanvue, a subscription platform that hosts virtual models, and was opened to AI creators aged 18 and over earlier this year to submit models following the following criteria: It must be 100% AI-generated and must be a social media influencer.
The pageant has four judges, two human and two AI: Andrew Brock, co-founder of PR firm Frank, Miss Great Britain judge and “beauty pageant historian” Sally Ann Fawcett, and AI models Aitana Lopez and Emily Pellegrini, both of whom have more than 200,000 followers on Instagram each.
Contestants are awarded points based on their looks, skills and social influence. Beauty points, like any other pageant, are awarded based on traditional good looks and the ability to answer questions with a mature and sophisticated attitude. However, it is worth considering that it is not difficult to score in this category as all the models are specially designed to meet (or exceed) all modern beauty standards.
Model detail, quality, realism and use of AI tools are also essential to winning points, especially since AI is known to have small but noticeable imperfections such as a sixth finger or extra teeth. To win, contestants must look as human-like and realistic as possible.
Finally, the consistency of engagement with fans on social media, the rate at which they grow their following and how they use the platform will be factors that will award points to contestants in the social influence category.
The contestant with the most points will be crowned Miss AI and their creator will win a cash prize of $5,000 and $8,000 worth of PR support, programming and mentorship.
To the surprise of many, the contest received over 1,500 applications, from which only 10 were selected.
Creators curate characters that would be suitable for a traditional contest setting, but with the added benefit that the models are 100% AI-generated, they can go as far as pushing unattainable beauty standards.
In addition to being generally good looking and conventionally attractive, AI models and influencers are perfect candidates to endorse and promote products for three reasons: they are scandal-free, never age, never get sick or injured, and can be reprogrammed to speak any language.
Although AI model Zara Shatavari is an inanimate object, Rahul Choudhury, co-founder of digital marketing company Digimozo and AI creator, has made her into a symbol for women battling PCOS and depression, regularly sharing advice, stories and commentary on women's healthcare in India on social media – one of the reasons Zara was shortlisted.
Like Zara, many of the other contestants cited their activist work as one of the reasons they made it to the finals.
Kenza Leyli strives to empower women in Morocco and was praised by the jury for her ability to connect her work to a wider international audience through her 196,000 followers on Instagram.
French influencer Anne Keldy has partnered with the organization Oceanopolis to promote ocean conservation, and Block believes she is “a great example of the positive impact AI creators can have on their audience.”
Fawcett said Romanian influencer Aiyana Rainbow and her creators have been praised for their efforts to be “advocates” for the LGBTQ+ community.
This trend of using AI influencers not just as role models in a physical sense, but also on a personal level, suggests that AI influencers may be the future of marketing, especially as events such as Miss AI increase their influence and popularity.
But the competition sparked a much broader conversation about AI influencers and AI in general.
The idea of virtual celebrities dates back to 1997, when Japan debuted its first virtual pop star, Kyoto Date. Since then, the world has seen an unexpected rise in virtual/AI-generated characters becoming influencers and brand endorsers.
Currently, the most followed AI influencer is Lu (Magazine Louisa), a brand launched by Brazilian retailer Magal to market itself, has more than 30 million followers on social media. Over the years, her work with Magal and other partnerships has brought in around $550 million in revenue in 2019.
Another example is American influencer Miquela (Lil Miquela), who has over 2 million followers on Instagram, has worked with Bella Hadid to promote Calvin Klein, and was named one of Time magazine's “25 Most Influential People on the Internet” in 2018.
Korean agency Metaverse Entertainment went a step further, creating IITERNITI, an 11-member K-pop girl group designed using motion capture technology and deepfakes, to debut in 2021 with the tongue-in-cheek song “I'm Real.” Though IITERNITI has yet to take part in brand advertising and marketing, the growing popularity of virtual influencers and celebrities rings true.
Given the impressive progress already being made in the world of AI influencers, concerns have arisen about the extent to which AI should be integrated into certain aspects of society.
When asked what he thinks about the ongoing debate surrounding the use of AI, Choudhury commented, “AI is there to help humans and Zara's aim is to spread awareness. She has the aura of a celebrity because I have noticed that people tend to follow celebrities and take part in their activities.”
“The celebrity-like aura can have other effects on viewers, including lowered self-esteem and jealousy. Technology-created depictions of conventionally attractive women will only reinforce harmful beauty standards that have terrorized women for centuries. Despite the benefits of their activism and awareness, AI influencers may be setting society back in terms of body positivity and confidence.”
If what creators truly want is to help people connect and raise awareness, skinny, Eurocentric AI-generated characters aren't going to get them there. To this day, what many companies fail to realize is the value of promoting role models that represent different demographics, because people want to see real people who look like them, have lived similar lives and experienced similar hardships – people they can relate to.
In a conversation with Forbes“AI can help us maintain our most youthful appearance by making small changes precisely on a regular basis that alter the way we age,” said Dr. Jennifer Levine, a double-board board-certified facial plastic surgeon. “We are being exposed to heavily altered images and people are beginning to see this as the standard of beauty. I think in the future we will see more people condemn these images and, if possible, not allow their use.”
Even though there are creators and teams behind AI influencers who carefully curate their personalities and image, hiding behind a perfectly designed character somewhat reinforces the idea that you need to look a certain way in order to be desirable or heard.
Real-life beauty pageants have been criticized for decades for their objectification and lack of body diversity, as well as for reinforcing harmful beauty standards and public perceptions of beauty. In the case of AI beauty pageants, these issues are exacerbated by the fact that they are not real, making appearances truly unattainable and undermining young women's notions of beauty.
A better way forward would be to give these powerful platforms to real people who are serious about fighting for their causes, promoting human products to human beings.
