Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg
I picked up a “beauty” magazine the other day. You know, the kind that shows how all females should dress, wear their makeup, and style their hair. One of the ads showed the flawless face of a beautiful, young woman with her eyes closed, basking in a “glow” for a product that (you guessed it) would create a glowing, smooth, and perfect skin. Admittedly, I absolutely thought that the model was picture-perfect. And so it was. Because at the bottom of the photo was the statement, “This image was generated using artificial intelligence.” I gasped out loud! What the heck? And, of course, this topic could not be left alone.
For eons—really, we don’t have to go back that far. So, for decades, women have been made to think that there is a “look” one should achieve in order to be perfect. And, finally, it has been determined that the only way a woman can be perfect is for her image to be created artificially. Do people even understand this subliminal message?
I have known many beautiful women in my life, but their beauty does not come from a beauty product. It comes from within.
So, here we are in 2024, and (as far as I can recall) the term “Artificial Intelligence” has crept into the American lexicon. But not in the realm of politics or international espionage. It has finally become front and center where the beauty industry is concerned. And now what?
In doing some research, I came upon an interesting take on A.I. in the website www.marketingaiinstitute.com/blog/ai-in-advertising. The following was taken, verbatim, from the website:
“Artificial intelligence, including generative AI, is used in advertising today to do everything from generate ad creative and copy to optimize ad budgets and predict advertising campaign performance. You can even use AI to scale up ad creative almost instantaneously or spy on your competition’s ad strategy.”
Of course, as an English major, I noted some glaring grammatical errors in the above paragraph. The paragraph should read:
“Artificial intelligence, including generative AI, is used in advertising today to do everything from generating ad creation and copy to optimizing ad budgets, as well as to predict advertising campaign performance. You can even use AI to scale up ads creatively, almost instantaneously, or spy on your competition’s ad strategies.”
Could it be that the paragraph in the website was created by A.I.? And, further, could it be that no one ever questioned or, at the very least, proofed what A.I. generated for the website?
Listen, I could be all wrong with this. After all, who am I (as a human) to question a computer? But, then, this is exactly what I am doing.