StyleSeat recently sought to explore how beauty is perceived differently across the globe using AI. The goal was not to compare AI perception with human perception, but rather to see whether AI could replicate the diverse patterns of beauty as interpreted by humans worldwide.
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According to the source, the challenge was to create a prompt not affected by human biases. In relation, the study also explored whether AI, similar to its human data sources, might uphold unrealistic beauty standards.
Using the AI image generator Midjourney, depictions were created based on the prompt: “photorealistic full-length portrait photo, beautiful woman from [country], standing full body facing camera, standing against a bright white backdrop, hyper detailed..."; the full technical parameters and explanations for these are detailed in the report.
StyleSeat found the resulting images successfully provided unique interpretations of beauty, including variations in race and cultural clothing. Most of the generated women also appeared with minimal or natural makeup, and many were wearing pants, challenging traditional norms.
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However, images also depicted women who were relatively thin. "This raises important questions about the diversity of the data we feed into such systems, especially in relation to differing beauty standards across cultures in aspects such as body type, clothing and more," StyleSeat wrote.
Overall, the exercise offered a glimpse into the variability of aesthetic standards worldwide.
See the full report to view all the images.
