We are increasingly curating our online personas, handpicking the images we share and choosing to present ourselves through a “beautification” lens. This shift has given rise to a quiet revolution: the use of AI-driven beauty filters.
Picture Perfect: The Hidden Consequences Of AI Beauty Filters
These digital tools — which apply an overlay of “perfection” to our photos — have infiltrated our social media feeds, offering the allure of flawless skin, sparkling eyes, and picture-perfect features with a single tap.
But beneath the surface charm of AI beauty filters lie risks and implications that we should all be aware of. Let’s explore the mechanics of these beauty filters and talk about the potential dangers that lurk behind these seemingly innocuous tools.

Beauty filters, also known as makeup or selfie filters, are digital tools that use artificial intelligence and augmented reality technologies to alter and enhance the appearance of an individual’s face in real-time. These filters give users the ability to modify their facial characteristics in selfies and videos, and they’ve become a staple feature of many social media platforms and photo-editing apps.
So how do these tools work?
Beauty filters use machine learning algorithms and computer vision technology to identify and map facial features. Then they superimpose digitally generated layers onto a user’s face to smooth out skin, contour face shape, resize facial features like eyes and lips or even apply virtual makeup. Some advanced filters can adjust lighting and color balances to give the illusion of professional-grade photography.
The underlying artificial intelligence of beauty filters is trained on huge datasets that consist of a large array of facial images, so the models can recognize and adapt to different face shapes, skin tones and facial expressions. Once the AI model identifies a user’s facial features, it applies enhancements according to the filter’s functionality. With these enhancements, users can create a customized (and often idealized) version of their own face. This process occurs almost instantaneously, providing real-time results that users can preview and adjust before sharing the final output.
The technology of many beauty filters has become so sophisticated that it’s actually difficult for others to figure out where and when they’re being applied.

TikTok launched its new Bold Glamour Filter in February 2023, and it immediately started making waves in the online community.
The filter uses highly advanced AI to basically overhaul and remold users’ faces into something entirely new. The filter can do things like sculpt your chin, thin or reshape your nose, whiten your teeth and brighten your eyes. Many users say they are almost completely unrecognizable when they’re using the filter.
As of March 2023 — one month after its initial launch — Bold Glamour had been viewed on TikTok over 400 million times.
The biggest concern about this filter is that it is disconcertingly seamless. You can put your hands or an object in front of the filter, and the filter will remain in place without a hitch. This is a big upgrade from previous filters, where you could add dog ears to your face or make your eyes look like those of a Disney princess. These earlier filters were much easier to spot.
Some TikTok users have even called the Bold Glamour Filter “dangerously realistic.”

So speaking of dangers: What are the potential pitfalls of these types of AI beauty filters?
Here are some of the significant problems associated with their widespread use:
Beauty filters often enhance features based on societal beauty standards, which are predominantly narrow and unrealistic. They can contribute to the perpetuation of these standards, making users believe they need to conform to beauty “ideals.”
Constant use and reliance on filters can lead to mental health issues like body image issues and low self-esteem — and can lead to anxiety, depression or addiction to social media validation.
Overuse of beauty filters may result in body dysmorphic disorder, a mental health condition where individuals obsess over perceived flaws in their appearance that may not be noticeable to others.
In the digital age, when lives are often showcased on social media, beauty filters can amplify constant pressure to appear perfect at all times. This can also contribute to anxiety and depression.
AI beauty filters may inadvertently uphold damaging age, racial and gender biases by consistently endorsing appearances that are younger, fair-skinned and frequently aligned with traditional gender norms.
With their ability to dramatically alter users’ appearances, beauty filters can facilitate deception. This can be particularly concerning in contexts like online dating, where users might present significantly edited versions of themselves, leading to misrepresentation and disillusionment when reality doesn’t match the filtered image.
Young people, particularly adolescents, are highly impressionable. Regular exposure to filtered images can skew their perception of beauty and self-worth, potentially leading to long-lasting psychological impacts.
AI beauty filters analyze and store user facial data, which means there is a risk of privacy infringement. These large datasets can be vulnerable to breaches and could potentially expose personal information. Some social media or photo editing applications may also share data with third parties for various purposes — including targeted advertising — often without the explicit consent of the user.

The role of AI beauty filters in our digital lives is transformational — but it’s also deeply concerning. Their capacity to instantly “beautify” and perfect our images can be a fun and creative tool. But the pervasive use of these filters has many potential pitfalls, including fostering unrealistic beauty standards and contributing to lower self-esteem and body image issues.
Let’s use these tools wisely, remind ourselves and others of the illusion they create and promote a digital culture that values and upholds the beauty of individuality and authenticity.

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Fighter had its OTT release on Netflix on March 21, 2024. Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone and Anil Kapoor’s aerial action film was released in theatres on January 25, 2024. On Thursday, Hrithik took to Instagram Stories to re-share a tweet about Fighter leaving behind Ranbir Kapoor‘s blockbuster Animal and Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Dunki to become the most viewed Hindi film in first 10 days on Netflix. Also read: Fighter becomes 3rd most popular non-English film on Netflix
Originally shared by Bollywood Box Office on X, the tweet read, “Fighter has broken all previous records on Netflix for a Bollywood Film, leaving behind the previous bests Animal and Dunki by a wide margin. This Hrithik Roshan-starrer garnered 12.4 million views in just 10 days. It has become the fastest Bollywood film to get these figures.” Sharing it on Instagram Stories, Hrithik wrote, “Yo! (dizzy emoji).”
Animal dropped on Netflix on January 26, 2024, on the occasion of Republic Day, while Dunki made its debut on the platform on February 15, 2024. While Animal was released in theatres on December 1, 2023, Dunki’s theatrical release date was December 21, 2023.
The film, directed by Siddharth Anand, features Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, Anil Kapoor, Karan Singh Grover and Akshay Oberoi as IAF officers. It is about a new and elite unit, Air Dragons, which is commissioned by the Air Headquarters in response to militant activities in Kashmir.
As an excerpt from Hindustan Times’ Fighter movie review read, “Fighter is a full-on entertainer that engages and excites in equal parts. It is high on patriotism but it never resorts to chest-thumping chants of Jai Hind or Hindustan Zindabad. The scene where Hrithik makes a reference to IOP (India Occupied Pakistan) in the climax certainly calls for loud cheers, and proves why Hindi films know best how to show love for their country. Watch Fighter for a pure paisa vasool experience, good-looking performances and some gravity-defying aerial action that won’t give you a headache but leave you with a sense of pride.”
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A top modeling agent wants to end the industry’s gender pay gap—which, unlike most industries, advantages women over men.
Elizabeth Rose, the director of London’s Premier Model Management, told BBC that she wants her female and male clients to get paid the same rate for the same work. The industry’s pay gap has been documented before, with Fortune reporting that the top female models bring home millions more dollars than men. For instance, Gisele Bündchen, the highest earning female model, brought home $42 million in 2013, per Forbes, while the top earning male model, Sean O’Pry, only took home $1.5 million that year.
“It’s unfair for men [and] I wouldn’t say it’s female empowerment at all,” Rose told BBC.
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One reason for the pay gap? The women’s fashion industry brings in $621 billion worldwide a year, while the men’s industry only makes $4oo billion, according to ABC. And while female models can become household names, sign multi-million contracts for brands, and walk the runways at much-publicized fashion weeks twice a year, male models just don’t get the same attention.
But of course, modeling is only one of a few industries where women make more than men. In 2015, women, on average, made only about 80% of what men made.
Still, Rose says she’s determined to make sure male models aren’t discriminated against because of their gender, asking companies she works with to pay male models as much as female models.
“The more models are made aware of it, the more you can try and help change it, because the more agents that say, ‘No, we’re not accepting this,’ that’s the only way it’ll ever change,” Rose told BBC. “And models standing up and saying, ‘I’m not going to do this unless I’m paid the same as the woman.’”
 
Write to Samantha Cooney at [email protected]

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