In recent years, we have seen a surge of AI-generated faces and virtual influencers flood our social media airwaves, becoming an increasingly prevalent presence in the digital space. These “digitally-derived personas” are now appearing in advertisements, music videos, and beauty campaigns, gradually being positioned at the forefront of industries influencing personal image.
Tools like MidJourney give one the ability to generate realistic but fictional faces for use in advertisements, social media, and promotional content using prompt-to-image generation, while powerful platforms like Unreal Engine’s MetaHuman create lifelike digital personas that can be brought to life through the use of animation and AI-powered chatbot integrations for live interactions.
This paper explores how the prevalence of digitally-derived personas and AI-generated faces could drastically alter societal perceptions of visual appearance and desirability. It examines the history and evolution of harmful beauty standards driven by digital image augmentation, such as the photoshopped body trend and the rise of apps like Facetune and AI Filters, to fully illustrate the potentially irreversible impact that this technology can have when used in image-focused industries where personal appearance is particularly vulnerable to external influences.
Additionally, this work uses personal narrative examples, case studies, and thought experiments to spark awareness and discourse around the unregulated use of digitally generated faces and AI-powered personas as tools for shaping trends and tastes. The ultimate goal is to advocate for the utilization of real humans with real stories in spaces where visual identity and representation hold significant weight on our societal psyche and influence perceptions of physical appearance.
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