Are AI-generated images perpetuating unrealistic beauty standards?

If you’ve ever toyed around with AI photo-generating apps, you may have noticed a trend emerging — especially when asking the technology to depict realistic-looking humans.

The trend I’m referring to is that all AI-generated humans seem to be stunningly beautiful — borderline perfect, in fact — despite visually flawless individuals rarely being a part of our day-to-day lives.

Take, for example, the below image.

I requested Midjourney to create a photo for an article about young people forcing the beauty industry to change. The prompt was something along the lines of ‘a diverse group of Gen Z teens wearing creative and colourful makeup.’

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