Cosmetic surgeons are warning of the rise of a new phenomenon called the "AI face," as more and more patients are seeking cosmetic surgery based on images created by artificial intelligence.
According to specialists, many people are presenting themselves to clinics with photos modified by chatbots and AI applications, seeking perfect skin, pronounced cheekbones, "ideal" noses, and almost absolute symmetry - standards that in most cases are impossible to achieve in real life.
Dr. Nora Nugent, cosmetic surgeon and president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, says the phenomenon is becoming increasingly common.
"We're seeing more and more patients coming in with AI-generated versions of themselves and believing that surgery can make them look exactly that," she says.
According to her, artificial intelligence is strongly influencing the way people perceive beauty and their bodies.
London surgeon Dr. Alex Karidis points out that unlike AI, surgery cannot control every detail of the face.
"AI can change every pixel of the photo. Surgery doesn't work at that microscopic level," he says.
Experts warn that many patients create unrealistic expectations long before they enter the clinic. Once they see a “perfected” image, it remains embedded in their minds as the standard of beauty.
Surgeons say one of the most common features of the "AI face" is hypersymmetry - a nearly perfect and mathematically symmetrical face, something that AI easily creates but that human anatomy does not allow.
Dr. Julian de Silva explains that some facial features cannot be safely altered.
"If one eye is slightly higher than the other, AI corrects it in seconds. But in reality this is related to the bone structure and the position of the eye sockets. It cannot be changed without risk," he says.
According to him, AI usually creates the same beauty model: for women a heart-shaped face, thin jaw and high cheekbones, while for men a wider jaw, lower eyebrows and more "masculine" features.
Another concern is the potential use of AI itself by aesthetic clinics on social media to create exaggerated results.
Dr. de Silva says he saw a video where a patient looked like she had become 30 years younger, but later noticed an absurd detail: the hand had six fingers.
In an experiment to understand the phenomenon, a journalist used AI to generate different versions of his face and then analyzed them with plastic surgeons.
At first, artificial intelligence suggested relatively common interventions such as nose correction and light eyelid lifting, with an estimated cost of around £25.
But more extreme demands brought increasingly absurd recommendations: chin implants, cheek fat removal, neck lifts, personalized implants, and laser treatments for "perfect skin."
“This is where things get scary,” said Dr. Karidis. “Even if all these operations were performed, the result would still not look like the AI-generated image.”
Surgeons warn that people should understand that the results of cosmetic surgery are never guaranteed, as every body heals, ages and reacts differently.
“Patients need to understand that we can’t control everything,” says Dr. Nugent. “Neither surgery nor real life works like artificial intelligence.” /GazetaExpress/
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