The World of AI-Generated Beauty Pageants

In a groundbreaking move, the inaugural Miss AI contest has taken the digital world by storm. Organized by the platform Fanvue, which caters to both AI and human creators, the competition attracted entries from over 1,500 AI programmers globally.

The winner of this prestigious event was Layli, an AI-generated avatar created by Myriam Bessa, the founder of the Phoenix AI agency. Myriam will receive a $5,000 cash prize, support on the Fanvue platform, and a publicist to help elevate Layli's profile. The runners-up were Lalina Valina from France and Olivia C from Portugal.

Kenza Layli, breaking new ground as Morocco's first AI-powered virtual influencer, is taking the fashion world by storm. This innovative creation is not just a pretty face; she's a testament to the power of artificial intelligence!

While virtual influencers like the playful Lil Miquela and the pink-haired Imma have been familiar sights, these AI contestants are a new breed. Unlike their predecessors, who often required human input and were designed by teams of creatives, these AI participants were generated solely using advanced programs like DALL·E 3, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion. Their speeches and social media posts are also entirely AI-driven, crafted by language models such as ChatGPT.

Layli's Instagram page showcases her love for the color red, her advice to "invest in yourself daily," and her attendance at professional conferences to exchange ideas. She also expresses her support for her national sports team, though the country remains unnamed. The competition organizers emphasized that the contestants would be judged not only on their appearance but also on their creators' use of AI tools and their social media influence.

The AI contestants were required to answer questions similar to those in traditional human pageants, such as, "If you could have one dream to make the world a better place, what would it be?" This blending of the digital and the physical raises intriguing questions about the future of beauty standards and the role of technology in shaping our perceptions.

Experts have voiced concerns about the implications of an AI beauty pageant, as the stylized AI-generated images might further homogenize existing beauty norms. Dr. Kerry McInerney, a research associate at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, noted that these tools are designed to replicate and scale up existing patterns, rather than challenge them. "They're capturing the existing beauty standards we have, which are actively sexist, actively fatphobic, actively colorist, then they're compiling and reiterating them," McInerney warned.

The emergence of the Miss AI contest highlights the rapidly evolving landscape of digital creativity and the blurring lines between the virtual and the real. As the world continues to embrace AI-driven technologies, it will be crucial to navigate the ethical implications and ensure that these advancements serve to empower and uplift diverse perspectives, rather than perpetuate narrow beauty ideals.