‘Miss AI’ is billed as a leap forward but feels like a monumental step backwards | Arwa Mahdawi

AI models take every toxic gendered beauty norm and bundle them up into completely unrealistic package

Meet Madame Potato. She doesn't actually exist, but, if things go my way, she's going to be the world's first Miss AI". I recently created her image on a website that generates AI faces and then entered her into a beauty pageant. Now I am sitting back in anticipation of netting the $20,000 grand prize.

What fresh hell is this, you ask? Well, I regret to inform you that AI beauty pageants are a thing now. A company called Fanvue, which is a subscription-based content creator platform along the same lines as OnlyFans, recently teamed up with the World AI Creator Awards (WAICA) to launch the world's first Miss AI" competition. A team of judges - comprising two humans and two virtual models - will sort through AI-generated pictures of women and choose one to crown as Miss AI". The winner gets a cash prize along with the chance to monetize their creation on Fanvue.