New study finds AI facial filters can alter romantic attraction

Participants' smiles were changed during video meetings, impacting their reactions and behavior

It often seems like nobody really enjoys online dating, which has resulted in Tinder downloads falling, and Gen Z using them less than previous generations, with many women deleting them within one month.

It's not like dating ever wasn't primarily about looks, at least to start, but the "swipe left" culture has taken things to new lows of superficiality.  Now, things might get even worse on that front thanks to the use of AI, which can be used to manipulate a person's face to alter the way they're perceived. 

New research led by the University of Glasgow, and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), shows how powerful these tools can be: using AI facial features to create real-time transformations, specifically by changing the smiles of those participating, they found that AI facial filters can have the power to influence who people are attracted to. 

The study was carried out by asking volunteers to participate in a set of video-conference speed-dating sessions. During these session, the team used AI face transformations to align, or misalign, the smiles of participants without their knowledge by either increasing or decreasing their smiling appearance in real-time. 

While the filters the researchers used are similar to the ones already found on social media apps, such as Instagram or TikTok, the researcher say that these "were highly realistic and not obvious to participants in the study."

When participants smiles were aligned it enhanced the romantic attraction they felt towards each other, compared to scenarios when their smiles were not aligned. The study also noted that, even if participants were not seeing their own face being transformed, the transformations in their own face still affected their own attraction ratings via feedback loops.

In fact, the effect of these AI-based smiles were so powerful that they also impacted participants’ reactions, including their vocal behavior and their desire to mirror each other’s facial expressions. Participants also believed the other person was more attracted to them when the researchers increased the smiles seen in their dating partner.

When the experiment was completed, all participants were informed that their faces were transformed using AI filters, as well as about the potential influence that these transformations may have had on their interactions.

If simply changing someone's smile can have such a powerful effect on an interaction, there are numerous implications and potential ethical considerations that need to be considered as these filters become more sophisticated, the researchers noted. 

“From an ethical perspective, this study allows us to raise interesting ethical questions. In coming years, it seems inevitable that AI-based face and voice filters will become increasingly realistic and prevalent on social media," Dr Pablo Arias-Sarah, lead author of the study from the University of Glasgow’s School of Psychology & Neuroscience, said in a statement.

"Yet, it remains largely unknown how these technologies might influence the social behavior of users. As was recently done for other new technologies, for example deep fakes, a clear ethical guideline about the use and regulation of these technologies might be required.”

(Image source: berkeley.edu)