The Fanvue Miss AI pageant, the world’s first beauty pageant for AI-generated female models, judges contestants on beauty, social media clout, and their creator’s use of AI tools.

At first, they said artificial intelligence was coming after our jobs, but now it seems that not even beauty pageants are safe. Originally announced back in April 2024 by Fanvue, a subscription-based platform for creators, the world’s first beauty pageant for AI-generated avatars made international news headlines and sparked controversy online.

But, based on the popularity of AI models like Aitana Lopez and Emily Pellegrini on social media, this type of event was bound to happen at some point. About 1,500 AI-generated girls were submitted by creators from all over the world, but only 10 of them made the finalist list.

The top three contestants stand to win a total of $20,000 in prizes, with the creator of the one crowned Miss AI expected to walk away with $5,000. But this event is about more than cash prizes, as winning the world’s first beauty pageant for AI-generated female models is bound to open up new opportunities in the fast-growing AI space.

“What the awards have done is uncover creators none of us were aware of that have compelling backstories, along with talented creators behind them creating content for their fans,” Fanvue co-creator Will Monange said. “That’s the beauty of the AI creator space. It’s enabling creative people to enter the creator economy with their AI-generated creations without having to be the face themselves.”

AI is already being described as the new frontier in content and influencer marketing, with the most often cited advantages being models’ availability 24/7, low maintenance compared to real people, and being able to show up virtually everywhere, anytime. The tech is still not perfect, as most AI-generated models are still easy to recognize as “fake”, but the technology is evolving at breakneck speeds.

Despite the popularity of AI-generated avatars, the world’s first Miss AI pageant has drawn its share of criticism from people accusing it of further exacerbating the unrealistic beauty standards set by social media.

The results of the Fanvue Miss AI pageant are expected by the end of this month.

Oddity Central