“A New Cycle of Body Dysmorphia Has Already Begun”: Modelling Agent and Activist Chelsea Bonner Is Battling AI in Advertising

When artificial intelligence-generated images first exploded on to the scene, you could tell there was something a bit off about them. The hands had too many fingers, there were no ears, lighting didn’t match shadows, and hair didn’t follow the laws of gravity. But generative AI’s improved in the years since, and now it’s rampant in advertising.

How many of the “human” models you’ve seen in ads, posters and campaigns recently have been real people? And how many have been digital avatars or pixelised people? What does it mean when you can no longer tell the difference?

Modelling agent Chelsea Bonner says the pervasiveness of AI-generated images is potentially disastrous – to the industry as well as to the general public, particularly young girls and women. And according to her, we’re already deep in the new war against unrealistic beauty ideals.

“AI is unbelievably dangerous and it will only get worse if we don’t act now,” says Bonner, herself a former model and now CEO of modelling agency Bella Management.

She’s taking on AI by lobbying the Australian federal government to legislate and protect the beauty industry against fake images. She’s also advocating for the rights of models over having their likeness generated using AI.

“If we wipe out our industry, it’s not just fashion that suffers, it’s a domino effect: the photographers, caterers and hair and make-up artists and entire teams who turn up to shoots,” says Bonner. “We’re not just allowing AI to create dangerous and unrealistic imagery, we’re wiping out our future economy and that will have a horrific impact.”

New research data from Dove shows 90 per cent of online content is predicted to be AI-generated by 2025, and the beauty brand says the rise of AI is a threat to women’s wellbeing.

Almost one in two Aussie women already feel pressured to alter their appearance based on online images, despite knowing they are often fake or AI-generated, according to the research. Additionally, a significant majority recognises the prevalence of digitally altered images in the media, with nearly three in four Australian women and almost seven in 10 Australian girls acknowledging this reality.

For Bonner, it’s a blow to the progress the industry has made in becoming more inclusive and authentic. “We have made some huge strides fighting for real beauty standards over the last 20 years, and we’re seeing that with the use of curvy models normalised across media and advertising,” she says. But with biased, often racist or sexualised, ideals of what it means to be beautiful now being used to generate AI models, beauty standards are once again becoming unreasonable – and unattainable. And it can be bad for the self-esteem of women and girls.

According to Dove’s research, more than four in five Aussie women say they’ve been exposed to harmful beauty content online. “Snapchat, Instagram and Tiktok have already impacted us with the use of filters – changing the way we feel and how we look at ourselves,” Bonner says. “A new cycle of body dysmorphia has already begun as a result of these apps, and now we have AI thrown in the mix, which is not only setting up a new beauty ideal, but recreating humans without hiring anyone and that has dire consequences from the economy to beauty standards.”

The entrepreneur and activist would like to see all AI-generated model content come with a warning. “It’s the last thing that is likely to happen, but if our government legislated that AI images come with a warning, that will have great impact on users,” she says. “We have the technology that identifies AI fakes, but there needs to be an automatic content warning – a technology that I know is already available.”

Bonner believes young people in particular – who are growing up with AI-generated content, often without knowing that’s what they’re seeing – will be affected the most.

“My generation knows fake from real; we grew up with real photographs, but there’s a new generation of very young users who only know the world through filters and fake photos. They probably wouldn’t be able to spot the difference, and that has huge psychological impact.”

She was inspired to make a difference after reading Walkley Award-winning journalist Tracey Spicer’s Man-Made: How the Bias of the Past is Being Built Into the Future. Bonner says the beauty world won’t autocorrect itself – rather, it’s up to individuals like herself, and companies such as Dove, to kickstart a new agenda. The personal care company has recently pledged to never use any generative AI material in any of its advertising, and released a Real Beauty Prompt Playbook to help digital creators render more realistic and authentic-looking women on AI platforms.

Earlier this year, Dove invited Bonner to be a speaker in a panel discussion about AI and its influence on beauty standards; a few days later she was asked to model for the Real Beauty campaign.

“Dove is standing up and loudly and proudly saying they will always use real human beings in advertising campaigns. It’s an incredible statement to make, and one they didn’t have to do,” she says.

Bonner’s petition calling for regulations against generative AI is still accepting signatures.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Dove. Dove’s Real Beauty pledge is a commitment to portray real women as they are in real life – no models, no manipulation or airbrushing, no AI-generated images – and help young girls build their self-esteem.