As I have been scrolling through social media this week, my feeds have been inundated with the ‘AI doll’ trend. At first I thought it was fun and innovative, but after seeing 20 dolls in a row I started to question its point.
I believe AI can be used for good. It’s not my favourite thing in the world, but I’m not naïve to the fact that many people are using it in some way in their day-to-day lives.
Nevertheless, generating a fake version of yourself in a bid for likes, reposts, and comments on LinkedIn seems wasteful. While AI ‘art’ may look cool and take less than 20 seconds to create, the training and running of AI models – especially those that generate images – is massively energy intensive for data farms like the one pictured.
Creating a single AI image can use as much energy as charging your phone multiple times. And when you’re cranking out thousands of AI doll renders for social views and engagement, the environmental impact adds up – all for ‘avatars’ who don’t blink, breathe, or contribute anything meaningful to the planet.
We talk a lot about sustainability and corporate responsibility in modern business – it’s everywhere, from green buildings to carbon offsetting and eco-conscious branding. But where does that conversation go when we’re generating AI doll portraits purely for attention? If the goal is to inspire, surely there are better ways to do it?
And let’s not ignore recent events in the wider world of AI-generated art. With the release of OpenAi’s new image generator, powered by GPT-4o, a surge of generated Studio Ghibli-style visuals made their way across social media platforms – something which goes against the spirit of Studio Ghibli and its co-founder Hayao Miyazaki.
Just because we can direct AI to replicate esteemed art-styles in seconds with zero experience, that doesn’t mean we should – its cons often outweigh its pros.
The AI doll trend will disappear just as fast as it has flooded our feeds, as was the case with the Studio Ghibli trend. The novelty will wear off and the algorithm will move on. Unfortunately, with every processed prompt, the damage has already been done.
