The First Miss AI: A Moroccan Lifestyle Influencer Takes the Crown

Kenza Layli Wins Inaugural AI Beauty Pageant

The world’s first AI beauty pageant has crowned its winner: Kenza Layli, a Moroccan lifestyle influencer. This unique event, which unveiled its 10 finalists last month, marks a significant milestone in the AI and digital influencer landscape.

Introducing Kenza Layli

Kenza Layli, an entirely AI-generated influencer, aims to bring “diversity and inclusivity” to the AI creator sphere. With nearly 200,000 Instagram followers and an additional 45,000 on TikTok, Layli’s images, captions, and even her acceptance speech are all products of advanced AI technologies.

“Winning Miss AI motivates me even more to continue my work in advancing AI technology,” Layli stated in her acceptance speech. “AI isn’t just a tool; it’s a transformative force that can disrupt industries, challenge norms, and create opportunities where none existed before. As we move forward, I am committed to promoting diversity and inclusivity within the field, ensuring that everyone has a seat at the table of technological progress.”

The Miss AI Pageant: A Global Competition

The inaugural Miss AI contest, organized by Fanvue, an influencer platform for both AI and human creators, opened in spring and attracted entries from approximately 1,500 AI programmers worldwide. Layli was created by Myriam Bessa, founder of the Phoenix AI agency, who will receive a $5,000 cash prize, support on Fanvue, and a publicist to raise Layli’s profile. The runners-up were Lalina Valina from France and Olivia C of Portugal.

Virtual Influencers: A New Era

While virtual influencers like Lil Miquela and Imma are well-known, many required human intervention in their creation. In contrast, Miss AI contestants were generated solely using AI programs such as OpenAI’s DALL·E 3, Midjourney, or Stable Diffusion, with speeches and posts created by tools like ChatGPT.

On her Instagram page, Layli showcases a fondness for the color red, advises followers to “invest in yourself daily,” attends professional conferences to exchange ideas, and supports her national sports team.

Judging Criteria and Influential Judges

Competition organizers emphasized that contestants would be judged not only on appearance but also on their creators’ use of AI tools and social media influence. The AI contestants answered questions similar to those in human pageants, such as, “If you could have one dream to make the world a better place, what would it be?”

Judges included AI influencer Aitana Lopez and human pageantry historian Sally-Ann Fawcett, who told CNN last month that she was looking for contestants “with a powerful, positive message.”

Concerns and Implications of AI Beauty Pageants

Despite the excitement surrounding the competition, experts have raised concerns about the implications of an AI beauty pageant. Stylized AI-generated images may further homogenize beauty standards, according to Dr. Kerry McInerney, a research associate at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge.

“I think we’re starting to increasingly lose touch with what an unedited face looks like,” McInerney told CNN in a video interview. “These tools are made to replicate and scale up existing patterns in the world. They’re not made necessarily to challenge them, even if they’re sold as tools that enhance creativity. When it comes to beauty norms, they’re capturing the existing beauty norms we have, which are actively sexist, actively fatphobic, actively colourist, then they’re compiling and reiterating them.”

Among the competition’s 10 finalists, Layli, a hijab-wearing North African avatar, stood out as an outlier, representing a step toward diversity in the AI influencer landscape.

A Transformative Future

The Miss AI beauty pageant showcases the potential of AI in creative fields and raises important questions about the future of beauty standards and diversity in digital spaces. As AI technology continues to evolve, it will be crucial to ensure that it promotes inclusivity and challenges existing norms, creating a more equitable and diverse digital world.