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As AI continues to alter our world, it’s quite literally changing the face of cosmetic surgery.
Experts note that prospective patients are increasingly running their faces through artificial intelligence software to “looksmax” their appearance, then asking surgeons to mimic the unreal results.
“More patients are bringing in AI-generated images during the consultation process,” board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Thomas Su told The Post.
Inspiration photos have long been a part of the cosmetic surgery process. But now, people are bringing in photos of computer-generated illustrations instead of actual faces — and expecting their results to mirror the uncanny, poreless portraits of video game heroes and fantasy heroines.
“AI can create unrealistic expectations,” said Dr. Su, especially if patients think a simulated selfie can match the real deal.
The belief that ChatGPT can somehow design your perfect face is affecting everything from increased demand to delusional beliefs about what can — and can’t — happen on an operating table. In a survey published last year by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, patients who used AI enhancers to “develop” their new look had “significantly higher” expectations for plastic surgery outcomes.
But could there also be a benefit to facing an AI-generated face?
Dr. Su isn’t ruling it out.
“AI can help patients express what they are envisioning when they have difficulty putting it into words,” said Dr. Su. “It can certainly help facilitate discussion and improve communication between patient and surgeon.”
The caveat: “Everyone understands that it is an illustration, not a prediction.”
Su likens the trend to patients bringing celebrity photos, which were helpful to surgeons — but partly because they were used in a medical practice and not a “Face-Off” simulation, and everyone understood you couldn’t walk out of an operating table with Brad Pitt’s entire visage on your skull.
“In the past, patients typically understood they were showing an example of someone else’s features or proportions,” Dr. Su noted.
AI is trickier, because it can unrealistically heighten images of the patients themselves.
“Because these images often look realistic, patients may assume the results are surgically achievable when they are actually not limited by real human anatomy,” he explained.
“That can make managing expectations more challenging than it was with traditional inspiration photos.”
He emphasizes to his patients that AI does not account for anatomy, tissue quality, healing or the natural limitations of surgery.
“AI is not showing a guaranteed outcome,” he said.
Still, it’s no wonder people are trying to alter the face on their computer by using their computer.
Even before the Zoom boom of the pandemic, a 2019 study reported that 72% of facial plastic surgeons had patients who underwent procedures to look better in selfies, part of a phenomenon known as “Snapchat dysmorphia.”
While some surgeons have integrated AI simulators or medical-grade AI software into their practices, others — like Su — reject the practice, worrying it could make everyone share an eerily similar face.
“The best results enhance a patient’s own natural features and proportions rather than trying to make everyone look like the same AI-generated version of beauty.”
And Su remains unconvinced that digital perfection can, or should, be the end goal of a facelift, a rhinoplasty, a chin implant or any other surgical tweak.
“Beauty is not one size fits all,” he said. “Neither is plastic surgery.”
