The world's first AI beauty pageant is here

Beauty pageants have a bad reputation for being fickle and a little slimy. Now, AI creators are competing to create the most beautiful, well-rounded, and realistic AI.

‘The World AI Creator Awards’ claims to be “celebrating creators at the forefront of AI,” and those interested would be entering a competition called ‘Miss AI.’

On the surface, it seems to operate in the same vein as traditional beauty pageants, which usually focus on judging and ranking the physical attributes of its contestants.

However, this contest claims to be “dedicated to recognizing the achievements of AI creators around the world,” according to its website.

Artificial intelligence is a rapidly evolving field that has taken the world by storm with the development of large language models and machine learning.

AI is a competitive field, and now we are seeing a new kind of AI contest, a “beauty pageant,” in which AI creators are judged based on their artificially generated humanoid models.

As “interesting” as this may seem, this is a legitimate event where creators are being tested to see who can create the best AI model.

The rubric for this contest is based on “beauty, tech, and clout.”

The beauty portion of the competition examines traditional elements of pageantry, which aim to demonstrate the model's beauty, poise, and uniqueness.

This section is predicated on answers to questions such as, “If you could have one dream to make the world a better place, what would it be?”

The tech element looks at the implementation of AI tools used to craft these “digital masterpieces” (assuming they’re talking about the “women” in the pageant.)

The tech element includes what prompts creators decide to use, the model's output, and the visual aspects of the “model”, for example, how well their hands, eyes, and backgrounds are crafted.

Social clout might be the most interesting criteria that judges will have to deliberate on as creators will be assessed on how well their AI engages with fans, grows their audience, and uses social media platforms such as Instagram to gain a following.

Essentially, this contest, organized by WAICA, is judging the best digital or AI influencers, a phenomenon that is slowly creeping its way into mainstream media.

To enter, you must be the creator behind an AI-generated model and have “a social media presence” – the bigger, the better, probably.

The judges involved in this “pageant” range from beauty pageant historians to international AI influencers (well, their creators.)

The three winners will receive a “cash prize.” First place will win prizes worth up to $13K, second place will win prizes worth $5K, and third place will receive prizes worth up to $2K.

It’s no secret that AI influencers are making millions of dollars each. Brands are expected to spend an incredible $15 billion annually on influencer marketing by 2020, an increase of $8 billion from last year. Virtual influencers are proving easier to work with and much more lucrative than their human competitors.

Influencers like Lil Miquela are approaching 3 million followers on Instagram and nearly 600,000 on Spotify. The virtual artist is also expected to help generate $11.7 million for her creators this year after successful promotions with brands such as Calvin Klein and Prada.