'TikTok's bold glamour filter' raises concerns over AI and toxic beauty myths

In a world where toxic beauty standards are rife on Twitter, TikTok's latest sensation is a real-time filter called Bold Glamour that allows users to get a brand-new look at all times, without having to worry about toxic social media debates.

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The Bold Glamour feature was quietly released to the app's more than a billion users, and it cleverly blends a user's natural face with an AI-generated supermodel ideal, creating both laughter and alarm among users.

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Bold Glamour's superpowers have been captured in untold millions of videos uploaded on TikTok, with users marveling at the plumped-up lips, well-chiseled chins, and fluffy eyebrows worthy of a fashionista in many of the videos.

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"Beauty myth is on the rise," said Kim Johnson of Middle Georgia State University in the United States.

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According to Johnson, such effects as Bold Glamour could lead to unhealthy behaviors such as dieting excessively, comparing oneself with other women, and feeling low about oneself.

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The use of filters and effects has been a staple of TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat for years, but the latest generation of features like Bold Glamour has made the service even more compelling.

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In a recent interview with Psychology Today, Gwendolyn Seidman, professor of psychology at Albright College, said that there is no subtlety to it; it is instantaneous and powerful.

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She further added that those who are yearning for social approval, such as young people who are under a lot of pressure, are unlikely to like the results when the filter is turned off.

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Despite Bold Glamour's troubling aesthetic, observers are also scratching their heads over the technology itself, wondering if the app is an unsung improvement in artificial intelligence, alongside Bold Glamour's troubling aesthetic.

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When filters were first introduced, they imposed an effect -- like joke lenses on Snapchat -- over an onscreen face. These were easily recognizable if you did a sudden movement or by waving a hand in front of the image.

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“The thing that's so cool about it is that you can ... take your hand and place it in front of your face and it will still look pretty darn real," mixed reality artist Luke Hurd explained on his TikTok channel.

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As a matter of fact, while it is common for real-time video filters to be available on powerful computers, the technology is now available on smartphones, ready for everyone to use.

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"This is a new form of artificial intelligence that can be used by the masses to alter one's appearance and that's what is catching so many people's attention right now", said Andrew Selepak, a professor of social media at the University of Florida.

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After being contacted by AFP, TikTok declined to discuss the technology behind Bold Glamour, leaving the app in a state of mystery.

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On the website, however, the company did emphasize that "being true to yourself is celebrated and encouraged" and that the effects are effective in empowering "self-expression and creativity."

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In a statement released by TikTok, the company said that it will continue to work with our expert partners and community members to maintain TikTok as a positive, supportive space for everyone.

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Experts believe Bold Glamour uses generative AI, the same idea behind ChatGPT and Dall-E, apps that can create poems or art on demand almost instantly.

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It has been a couple of years since these types of filters have been available, but Petr Somol, the AI research director of Gen, a tech security firm, says TikTok's latest version is "pretty fine-tuned and well done".

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The most significant point is, if Bold Glamour is indeed generative AI's latest innovation, it would mean the filter is dependent on goldmines of data in order to deliver its increasingly perfect results.

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As it turns out, this dependence on big data is occurring as the Chinese-owned firm is under intense scrutiny by the US and other western governments that are concerned about the company's ties to the communist authorities in Beijing.

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"I wonder whether TikTok is really concerned about the implications of this new shiny thing," said Selepak.

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Many people wonder whether state-of-the-art filters are leading to a world where it is becoming easy for anyone who owns a smartphone to take advantage of the technology in order to create fake profiles, scams, and deep fakes.

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"These filters are not necessarily deep fake technologies," Somol said, but there is a relatively straightforward path in that direction.

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Siwei Lyu, a computer science professor at Buffalo's State University of New York at Buffalo, said that it is unlikely that major platforms like TikTok or Meta's Instagram would provide dangerous tools knowingly to users.

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He added that "what makes them even more dangerous is that people who understand the technology could change it by themselves in order to help users evade being identified online", which opens up new avenues for misuse of the technology.