TRUTH IN BEAUTY

In a filtered, digitised, and AI-enhanced world, how do you find beauty that endures?

- KAITLYN GREENIDGE

Around the new year, everyone’s face changed—not in real life but on the glowing screens of social media. Friends replaced their usually sober, realistic profile photos with sleek cartoon avatars of AI portraits. Suddenly, everyone wanted to look like they’d been subsumed by a video game. People who I did not think particularly cared about the face they presented on social media posted endless pictures of themselves as fairy queens and dragon slayers and mistresses of a vague martial art. AI face-morphing capabilities continued apace; months later, TikTok released its Bold Glamour filter, a revelation that subtly widens one’s eyes, thins one’s nose, plumps one’s lips, and smooths one’s skin. The marvel is that this new hybrid face moves in real time on your screen, the sleight of hand nearly undetectable.