Although filters are a routine part of the TikTok experience, users weren’t ready for the arrival of Bold Glamour. This feature, released last month, uses an algorithm to refine factions to make them more ‘aesthetic’. The realism of the filter and the technology behind it have raised questions about the limits of facial distortion and beyond, about the implementation of artificial intelligence in commonly used applications.
In February of this year, TikTok announced that its filter creation tool would give access to generative artificial intelligence. This advance would give access to change the user’s features in real time, so that the modifications are realistically integrated with the face.
The new wave of filters that took advantage of this advance have raised alerts regarding mental health and the possible harm of having a distorted image of the face. Another of the questions was the Eurocentric tendency to modify certain features so that they fit into a mold that leaves out ethnic minorities.
