Artificial Beauty: Behind The Curtains Of The "Miss AI" Beauty Pageant

Welcome to this week’s Deep-fried Dive with Fry Guy! In these long-form articles, Fry Guy conducts in-depth analyses of cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) developments and developers. Today, Fry Guy dives into the first-ever Miss AI beauty pageant. We hope you enjoy!

*Notice: We do not receive any monetary compensation from the people and projects we feature in the Sunday Deep-fried Dives with Fry Guy. We explore these projects and developers solely for the purpose of revealing to you interesting and cutting-edge AI projects, developers, and uses.*

Step aside, Miss America, and make room for Miss AI!

Traditional beauty pageants are infamously known for judging contestants on their looks alone. The personality or intelligence of the contestants is often not considered much. Not to mention, the unrealistic beauty expectations of these runway models are highly criticized. And now, this highly-scrutinized industry is getting even more controversial, with the help of AI.

A NEW KIND OF INFLUENCE

AI social media influencers have been taking the internet by storm. This trend was started by an AI modeling agency called The Clueless, who created Aitana Lopez. Aitana, an AI avatar and personality, is a 25-year-old AI content creator based out of Barcelona, Spain. She posts entirely on her own, without any humans pulling the strings behind the scenes. The artificial gamer and fitness lover has garnered over 300,000 followers on Instagram in less than a year. Many of these followers are oblivious to the fact that she’s not real. In fact, 58% of social media users follow AI influencers on sites like TikTok, Facebook, and X right now, even though they might not know it. This is because her posts are almost indistinguishable from that of a human. She posts from the gym, the beach, and more. She even shares what video games she is “playing” to relate to her followers.

Aitana is more than just a fun tech experiment; she is also a lucrative business. Although Aitana is completely fake, prominent companies like Victoria’s Secret and Olaplex pay her up to $1,000 per Instagram post to mention their brands. Aitana has gotten so famous that her human overlords are making over $11,000/month off her image and likeness.

Aitana’s success has paved the way for hundreds of AI influencers to follow, with some making up to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for their human creators. This means humans create these influencers, program them with personalities (often in association with social causes they care about), and then sit back and rake in the cash.

It’s not only individual creators who see the potential in AI influencers. Marketers have also caught on to this trend. Companies realize that they can create these AI social media personalities to personalize their brand and ultimately gain more followers and, as a result, increase sales. A recent survey found that 63% of all marketers plan to use AI in their social media campaigns in the near future. This is being done to appeal to young people in particular, as a recent study found that almost half of Gen Z respondents in the US and UK were “more likely” to be interested in a brand if they knew it had an AI spokesperson.

Because these synthetic content creators are exploding in popularity, they are becoming part of our social world. This has led to some peculiar developments beyond social influence and marketing. One of the most notable emergences is an AI beauty pageant.

MISS AMERICA MISS AI

The World AI Creator Awards (WAICA), in collaboration with Fanvue, have been putting on the first ever “Miss AI” beauty pageant. This event was originally made to promote Fanvue’s AI content tool, which helps users analyze and optimize their content and fan engagement. This contest was open to the public and made free for anyone to join. It’s reasonable to think that a few influencers would get on board with the idea, but this event has exploded in an unprecedented way.

The Miss AI contest garnered over 1,500 entries of AI-generated models with unique personas. These AI models represent countries across the globe and are judged according to their photorealism (which often includes videos) as well as their ability to engage audiences. Ten finalists have been selected, and a winner will be announced at the end of this month, with prizes totaling $20,000. The ten finalists represent nine different countries, and some notable contestants include Asena Ilik, the sporty athlete and Aiyana Rainbow, the diversity-focused DJ.

Like any beauty contest, the winner will be decided by the judges. Here is where we find a very interesting twist. There are two human judges, but there are also two AI judges, including Aitana. These fake judges will be using their own synthetic reasoning to determine who the winner will be, which has been quite interesting so far. AI judges have to decide for themselves the criteria for Miss AI. Is it her beauty? Her personality? Her tech skills? Or is it her stance on social justice issues?

As one might expect, reactions to the emerging trend of AI influencers and the Miss AI contest are mixed. Eric Dahan, CEO of the social media marketing company Mighty Joy, sees promise in this new form of social engagement, stating, “With this technology, we’re very much in the early stages, where I think this is the perfect type of content that’s highly engaging and super low hanging fruit to go after.” Others hope to see more efforts to use these AI models to promote positive messaging. For instance, Miss AI judge Sally-Ann Fawcett says she is focusing her judging efforts on the messaging around these AI beauty queens and not just on their looks. She said, “Because they are all beautiful, I want somebody that I would be proud to say is an AI ambassador and role model giving out brilliant and inspiring messages, rather than just saying, ‘Hello, I’m really hot!’” She added, “I would like to see somebody of a different gender, somebody larger, somebody older, somebody with flaws.”

Despite Fawcett’s desire for AI influencers that challenge traditional beauty standards, this type of judgement is not reflected in the finalists. As hinted at earlier, according to the pageant rules, the contestants are judged on “beauty, tech savviness, and social clout.” However, beauty (and traditional beauty, at that) seems to trump everything else. Of the 1,500 entries, the ten finalists are all physically stunning. None of the finalists are overweight or have bad acne, for instance. Sociologist Hilary Levey Friedman stated, “They’re drawing on all these stereotypes that we have about what a ‘beautiful woman’ is, and people who tend to use AI might have a different idea of what an attractive woman might be. She might have pink hair, but she’ll still be within the realm of traditional beauty.” In other words, the creators of these AI influencers have attached traditionally beautiful traits to popular social issues, and that is what is being judged as most valuable in the Miss AI contest.

The way the AI standard of beauty and judgement is being applied in the Miss AI contest reflects an interesting reality: AI was created by humans, so it reflects human thoughts and behavior. This means AI influencers reflect human influencers, human stereotypes, human language, and human social constructs. So as AI begins to interact and influence humans more and more, they will bring along with them the good, the bad, and the ugly in humanity.

A NEW STANDARD OF BEAUTY

AI influencers are not only charting an entirely new course for social media and marketing, they’re also redefining human-AI interaction. We’re not just programming these influencers—they’re programming us, shaping the way we think and engage online. Take Aitana, for example. She is more than just a fun experiment—she’s interacting with real people every day, influencing the way they think and behave. Her massive success underscores this, as it showcases AI’s immense potential to transform consumer behavior and online interactions.

Although AI influencers are opening up innovative ways to connect with audiences and push brands, they are also stirring up thorny issues around beauty standards, authenticity, and stereotypes. As these AI creations reflect our own biases and ideals, they force us to rethink what we consider beautiful and influential. A prime example has been seen with the Miss AI contest. By marrying AI with human standards of beauty, this contest showcases both the exciting possibilities and the potential pitfalls of blending AI with humans in our society.

In the end, AI influencers like Aitana and those involved in the Miss AI pageant are more than just digital avatars; they’re setting new standards for beauty and interaction, influencing how we relate to technology and each other. So as we continue to blend humans and AI in our society, it’s vital to ensure these interactions enrich our lives in thoughtful and inclusive ways.