#NoFilter Series: From Puppy Face Filters to Algorithmic Assessments of Attractiveness — How AI and AR are changing our perceptions of beauty

When I tried Snapchat’s puppy face filter back in 2015, I never thought the same technology would be considered the norm six years later. As Augmented Reality advanced further, more filters were developed, with beauty filters gaining the most popularity. These so-called beauty filters have slowly been distorting our perception of beauty and expectations of humans.

From puppy face filter to impossible beauty standards

Our perception of beauty and the ‘ideal body’ has changed over time and will continue to change. What’s alarming is that the percentage of people dissatisfied with their bodies is increasing at a drastic rate. According to a 1997 study, 56% of women and 43% of men were dissatisfied with their bodies. By 2018, it had risen to 83% in women and 75% in men! Almost eight out of every ten people you know are dissatisfied with their bodies.

A number of factors have contributed to this, but face filters and apps like Facetune claim a significant share. The first major development in face filters happened back in 2013 when Lightricks, a company that develops video and image editing apps, introduced an app called Facetune. This app allowed users to make themselves look better in images by reshaping the face, taking in the waist, and whitening the teeth. Although image editing was popular even before Facetune, heavy editing to the extent of reshaping the face and body gained popularity only after Facetune.

Later, in 2015, Snapchat introduced a feature called Lenses. We call it ‘face filters’ today — it was an AR-based technology that let users change their looks in different ways. Selfies got a lot more creative with puppy ears and barfing rainbows. But a few months later, beauty filters were developed using Lenses, and they started stealing the limelight. While heavily edited images were identifiable in the initial days, they are unidentifiable today. The gap between one’s real and virtual appearances started getting wider. Instead of just making us look better in the images, these filters carve an ‘ideal’ version of ourselves into our minds — a version of us with thin waists, altered bone structure, flawless…