Using OpenAI’s Dalle-E-2 and billions of data points scoured from social media, eating disorder website The Bulimia Project has constructed what society deems the ideal male and female body types.
The charity calls the results “largely unrealistic” and “sexualised” in their depiction of body types, and to be frank, it’s hard to disagree.
“This could (negatively impact) individuals’ body images,” James Campigotto, who worked on the project, told the New York Post.
Fortunately, even though blood veins the width of hose pipes are certainly unrealistic for the average bloke, it’s hard to imagine they’re in any way desirable.
If the results are to be believed, the ideal male body has a sharper jawline than ever thought possible, and more segments to his six pack than a baker’s dozen.
Society also prefers olive skin and dark features, by the looks of it.
As for the ideal woman, she is Caucasian, blonde and very slim, wearing what appears to be a shoddy costume from the set of a second-rate 80s sci-fi.
The Bulimia Project said: "Considering that social media uses algorithms based on which content gets the most lingering eyes, it's easy to guess why AI's renderings would come out more sexualised.
"But we can only assume that the reason AI came up with so many oddly shaped versions of the physiques it found on social media is that these platforms promote unrealistic body types, to begin with," stated The Bulimia Project.
While the results are definitely weird, the authenticity of the research is debatable.
A Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) search of “James Campigotto data journalist” yields absolutely no results beyond the rehashed articles quoting the original NY Post piece.
The Bulimia project’s website does not have any available contact details either.
If the recent blunder from The Irish Times is anything to go by, it’s that AI trolls are on the rise, so journalists should be careful about who, or what, to quote.