Why This Viral AI App Thinks I’m Usually Half-Naked and Have Huge Breasts
Hypersexualisation, gender bias and other issues with apps like Lensa
Over the last week, social media has been flooded by AI-generated images created with an app called Lensa.
It’s one of a couple of similar ones that lets users turn their selfies into semi-realistic avatars of themselves as anime characters, fairy princesses and fantasy heroes.
I have to say that when I first saw them, this whole thing just seemed like harmless fun. And it reminded me of another viral trend from earlier this year of people turning their selfies into cartoon characters.
But actually, it looks like it’s not so harmless.
Although many people marvelled at how cute and flattering the images created with Lensa are, many others — mainly women — expressed their discontent with the results that were often highly sexualised.
And so I was tempted to run a little test as well.
I downloaded the app, submitted 18 most ‘modest’ headshots of myself I could find, and then waited around half an hour for the algorithm to work its magic.
But I wasn’t happy with the results either.
