Is the new hype photo app sexist?
The network is currently honking the Lensa app quite heavily. But there are also increasing numbers of voices saying that the app creates suggestive photos, especially of women. Is the hyped app sexist?
In the past few days, more and more posts have appeared online in which users show themselves in imaginative poses. These pictures are usually accompanied by a note like: “I just had to try this trend!”
Behind the trend is the new Lensa app, which creates “magic avatars” with the help of artificial intelligence. The new feature, added to the app just a few weeks ago, has catapulted the application straight to the top of the app charts in the stores.
But more and more voices are being raised that the app portrays female users in particular in a sexualised way. Meanwhile, the app depicts male avatars in warlike outfits.
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What is Lensa?
The Lensa app comes from the developer studio Prisma Labs. The app has been around for about a year, but only now has it become a hit in the app stores.
This is due to the new “Magic Avatars” feature, which allows users to create soft-focus fantasy avatars. Previously, users could only smooth wrinkles or remove other blemishes in the app.
For the new function, users must upload photos of themselves in the app. With the help of artificial intelligence, a magical avatar is then created.
Users complain about Lensa
The human rights activist Brandee Baker, for example, asked on Twitter whether it was just her or whether the AI generator was causing misogyny.
Is it just me or are these AI selfie generator apps perpetuating misogyny? Here’s a few I got just based on my photos of my face. pic.twitter.com/rUtRVRtRvG
— Brandee Barker (@brandee) December 3, 2022
Another user askswhether others have also received “a highly sexualized image” in their avatar pack. She received such a picture in which she was shown “topless and naked from the front”.
In her thread, she describes that she has not uploaded any nude photos to Lensa. However, she took such a photo with her cell phone on the same day that she also took a Lensa photo.
And the app doesn’t stop at Angela Merkel either, again mirror reported. The news magazine fed the app with pictures from press conferences or from the Bundestag.
The result was many pictures with a painting look. However, the fantasy style also gave the ex-Chancellor “a revealing fairy outfit”.
What does Prisma say about the allegations?
TechCrunch has confronted Prisma Labs with the allegations. The developer studio meanwhile referred to its terms of use.
We do our best to ensure that the AI model settings give moderate results. However, it is possible that you will come across content that you find inappropriate.
According to Prisma, this lies with the programmers behind the AI model. Because this was trained with unfiltered data from the Internet. Therefore, the results of the app would only reflect the biases “that people put into the pictures”.
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