why are my avatars NSFW?!

thoughts on Lensa AI and why some of the Avatars from the viral app are giving disturbing incel vibes

Lensa AI: the internet craze that left me wanting

Even if you haven’t yet ran your photos through the viral Lensa AI app, you’ve probably seen hordes of “magic avatars” flooding your feed over the past couple days. If not, you must be taking a break from Instagram or something, because my feed is currently exclusively these (or memes along the lines of “no one wants to see your fucking AI avatar”).

It has, honestly, already gotten old—in the way that most viral sensations go stale by hour forty-eight—but I’ve still enjoyed seeing my friends as whimsical fairy princesses and space alien goddesses. It’s fun!

Also, I know very little about AI, so I find it fascinating, extremely impressive, and almost a bit scary to see what AI can do. It’s honestly amazing how close the resemblance between the avatars and the people they were generated after seem to be. It’s really quite uncanny.

Lastly, I’m as self-obsessed as the next person (probably more so)! Of course, I want gorgeous AI-generated images of me looking gorgeous!

I had to try it.

I was underwhelmed…but also whelmed?

I ran the program twice. The first time, I submitted eighteen photos of myself and paid $12 for 100 avatars. A few hours later, I got them back to discover they looked nothing like me. A lot of them bear clear some similarities to me, but in the same way that sketches drawn by a (creative and imaginative and slightly perverted) police sketch artist who was given a verbal description of me would. Some of them fully look like other (specific) people (tell me that isn’t Barbara Palvin in the center).

who are they??

Anyway, they were a far cry from the exacting images I was seeing of my friends. Irked, I ran the program another time (I wanted the postable pics that other people have!!!).

This time, I selected a different pool of seventeen photos. I tried to choose “better” photos, meaning all of them were recent and had different backgrounds. I also heeded their instruction not to include photoshoot photos, which I hadn’t seen the first time. I then coughed up another $8 (yes, I’ve so far spent $20 on this) for 50 avatars.

The second collection was better—a few even hit the “uncanny resemblance” mark I’ve been seeing online of other people—but still felt pretty underwhelming.

me-esque

A lot of them (across both rounds) had a pretty clear hairlip, which is funny because I technically have a “cleft nasal tip,” or the tail-end of a hair-lip, but I didn’t think it was that apparent. Whatever.

All in all…the AI program seemed to have a hard time with my face.

It’s very possible that I submitted bad photos both times. Additionally, it could be that, out of the 50+ avatars that come in each “package,” most of the avatars that come back for most people aren’t that accurate, but everyone posts the few that truly look like them (meaning that it just seems like other people’s avatars are more accurate than mine).

Regardless, the common throughline between all 150 images of me was simply not my face. What my avatars did all had in common were: blue eyes, dark blonde to brunette hair, and massive mommy milkers.

This AI seems to be tit-obsessed.

I’m talking NSFW, semi-pornographic jugs. My face? Quasi-there. My tits? Center-stage. In fact, in some of the images, it even cut off at the neck—like, NO FACE included—and instead opted to go for straight-up titty shots. 

what in the erotic fan-fic is going on?

Before I even called his attention to the busty avatar mystery, I showed my boyfriend my avatars and he asked, “did you submit that photo of you in the brown shirt where your boobs look huge?”

I had. I had indeed.

Now, I’m not actually sure whether Lensa AI is programmed to recognize people’s body types (or to highlight their bra sizes), or whether it gives all women handsome busts. It kinda seem like my smaller chested friends’ avatars have semi-proportionately sized busts, whereas my bustier girlies have been posting avatars adorned with big ole knockers (like, BIG ones)? I haven’t looked into this too in-depth, though, and don’t have a comprehensive enough data pool to say for sure.

Either way, my avatars were BUSTY, uncomfortably sexualized and reminiscent of erotic internet art.

So, naturally, James and I promptly decided that the AI was programmed by a bunch of Manga-obsessed, porn-loving nerds who taught it to prioritize breasts over facial features.

Then, it got creepier…

Than, I randomly got a text from my friend, Sakura, which brought up more questions…

No, not one of my 150 images featured other people.

Turns out, while Lensa AI turned gave me softcore porn-esque visuals of women vaguely similar to myself, Sakura mostly received beautiful images of avatars that bore an uncanny resemblance to her, much like most of what I’d been seeing online. These were sexualized to varying degrees (including one of her touching herself???), but only a couple out of the 100 she did had noticeably large breasts. She also had some that looked nothing like her (these were more in vein with mine, ie the generic versions of women who fit our basic descriptions). A fair amount felt slightly racist.

Seemingly for good measure, she also got a sprinkling of images of her avatar with other avatars of unknown people, including a couple nightmarish scenes of her… being stalked?

*scream*

I have yet to see any other avatars with other people in them, let alone any depicting a terrifying creep seemingly moments away from preying on a beautiful woman (have you???).

I thought that, perhaps, there were people in the background of her photos? But, no… Sakura said she’d cropped all of her photos to only include her face.

Needless to say, we were feeling a little confused (and very creeped out). Why were there other people with her avatars??

What the actual fuck is going on?

We had questions. Namely:

1. Are Lensa AI’s female avatars so hyper-sexualized because this AI was programmed by perverted incels (possibly with a big boob fetish)?

2. Was it unable to pick up on my face because I’m so stunningly unique?

3. Did Sakura have people in hers because she’s being haunted, and the AI recognized the spirits who’ve attached themselves to her from her iPhone photos?

Thankfully, Sakura’s boyfriend, David, is a computer programmer/genius who’s familiar with how AI works, had some answers (or, at least, he had some insights on what the fuck may be going on).

Overall, he said:

Slightly more specifically, he thinks:

1. Are Lensa AI’s female avatars so hyper-sexualized because this AI was programmed by perverted incels (possibly with a big boob fetish)?

2. Was it unable to pick up on my face because I’m so stunningly unique (lol jk…)?

ie. no… it’s more that I’m actually I might just look like the average celebrity. At first I was like, because I give off the celebrity narrative! A win is a win!!! But then, that next text came in, and I was like, right, it’s racism. A win is a win…for white people.

3. Did Sakura have people in hers because she’s being haunted, and the AI recognized the spirits who’ve attached themselves to her from her iPhone photos?

I meant “related to poc women **experiencing more instances of male violence” (or being portrayed online more often as the victims of violence.

I’m not sure where my additional thought fits in, but I’m including it in case it sparks any further thoughts/discussion.

These seem like perfectly plausible explanations, and feel better knowing that this probably isn’t the opening to a real life Black Mirror episode in which Sakura playfully enters her photos into an app only to trigger a real life stalker/ghost. However, the implication of these answers are pretty disappointing and disturbing (if not unsurprising…).

It’s not the AI (or even the programmers), it’s us.

Ultimately, AI technology isn’t more intelligent than humans. It doesn’t create new (objective) ways of looking at people or things. It can’t generate anything that other than combinations of existing ideas/images/etc that it’s exposed to. It, instead, reflects the real world. It picks up on the thought patterns that we follow, it highlights the subconscious that our society operates under. It’s a mirror, pointed at us.

So, just like the civilization that created it is, it’s sexist and racist (or, at least, prone to stereotyping).

Whomp, whomp.

Whaddaya think?

Anyway, I’m curious to hear other theories and insights (drop em in the comments), as well as what your avatars look like (and if they’re on point/weird/indicative of societal failure).

Also, just to leave on a light note: what do you think they’re harvesting all this yummy data for?!