AI is everywhere these days and its effects are chilling, especially when it comes to depictions of girls and women. The most egregious example that comes to mind is, of course, nonconsensual AI porn based on real people (including celebrities), but everywhere you look on the Internet are ads featuring doll-like AI women or conspiracy theories around possible AI videos of public figures. We’re not saying AI is all bad, but this is only scratching the surface of the fears around what AI is doing now and what it could be used for in the very near future.
One effect we might not be thinking about enough is how AI can impact how women perceive themselves. With AI generating more and more Internet content — some experts believe it could be responsible for up to 90 percent of what we see on our screens by next year (!) — a new survey from Dove found that 39 percent of women surveyed “feel pressure to alter their appearance because of what they see online, even when they know it’s fake or AI generated.”
And that’s coming on top of the body toxicity promoted on image-obsessed social media sites like Instagram and TikTok. Dove found that nearly 90 percent of women and girls say they’ve been exposed to harmful beauty content on social media, and that over half of women and girls feel pressure to undergo cosmetic procedures from social media and influencers.
The findings come as part of Dove’s latest global beauty survey, released April 9. The beauty brand polled over 33,000 respondents worldwide, including nearly 900 women and 500 girls in the US, to explore “the state of beauty and its impact on women and girls around the world today.” Researchers were able to compare the new results with data from 2004 and 2016 to understand how women’s perceptions of beauty have changed over the last 20 years.
The revelations about AI and beauty — an issue that didn’t even exist in 2004! — was only one of the chilling statistics Dove uncovered. The survey also revealed that, compared to 2004, more than three times as many women are now “willing to be less intelligent to be more beautiful”; that 73 percent of women feel more pressure to be beautiful than they did eight years ago; and that more than 1 in 3 women “would give up at least a year of their life to achieve their beauty ideals.”
Overall, the survey found that women around the world are less confident in their own beauty than they were in 2016. Nearly 90 percent of American women, meanwhile, report “mid to low levels” of body esteem. They’re grim numbers, showing just how far we still have to go to combat issues like fatphobia and tone down the Internet’s obsession with appearance (real or AI-generated).
One glimmer of good news comes when we look to the next generation. Dove’s survey found that young girls are more likely to feel that they’ll have the equal opportunities in the future, regardless of body type, gender, or ethnicity. They’re also less self-critical about their looks and less likely to feel pressured to be beautiful when compared to women.
Of course, we have our work cut out for us to keep them feeling that optimism, especially as the social media, AI, and the Internet in general continue to play an outsized role in our lives. For their part, Dove has pledged to “never use AI imagery in place of real women,” while promising not to use digital distortion or promote “unrealistic beauty standards of any kind.” The brand is also launching a new campaign, the Code, reflecting on the impact of AI on beauty while showing how important it is for women to see real beauty in new media.
On an individual level, it’s also worth taking stock of your own Internet and social media consumption. Is your time online making you feel anxious or pressured to achieve a certain (impossible) ideal, and how does that change the way you feel and treat yourself? Beauty standards are designed to be unattainable, and you’re always better off accepting (and loving) yourself exactly as you are.
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