Cosmetic surgeons underneath strain to show sufferers into ‘good’ AI replicas
Cosmetic surgeons are pulling their hair out as more patients are demanding medics make them look like flawless AI pictures of themselves.
One in seven doctors admit a patient attended an appointment with a perfect AI snap of their face that they wanted in real life. But these AI images are creating “unrealistic” ideas of what surgery can achieve, the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) warned.
The trend – dubbed “AI face” – includes shiny skin, sculpted cheekbones, altered noses and beefed up jawlines. Nora Nugent, president of the BAAPS, said: “Patients can arrive with an image of themselves that has been altered by AI and, because it is still recognisably them, it can feel like a realistic representation of what they could look like after surgery.
Cosmetic surgeons have spoken out(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
“But the image may bear very little relation to what is anatomically or surgically possible. Surgery cannot simply reproduce every change that an algorithm has made to a photograph.
“We can improve and enhance features, but we cannot rewrite anatomy or guarantee a digitally perfect outcome.” Ms Nugent added she expects the trend to become “more common” as AI bots become more popular.
The tech can transform an image at a pixel level, creating near-perfect symmetry and features. Meanwhile, surgeons work with a person’s features including their bone structure, soft tissue, skin quality and the way their body will heal.
AI is fuelling the trend(Image: Getty Images)
Nugent added: “AI can create an image without having to consider the individual behind it, their anatomy, their medical history, how they will heal or how they will age. A plastic surgeon must consider those things.
“The aim should never be to turn a real person into an AI-generated image; it should be to understand what that individual wants and establish what can safely and realistically be achieved.”
BAAPS urged anyone thinking about going under the knife who has used AI to alter their look to show both the original and generated images to their surgeon. It also says patients shouldn’t feel pressured to have an op because an AI tool suggested a makeover.
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