Reem is not the only AI influencer to have stirred up these feelings. Kenza is a “Moroccan Muslim” AI influencer and yet she’s so fair that if it wasn’t for her attire, you’d be forgiven for thinking she was European. She reminded me, again, that beauty ideals for people of color are nigh on impossible to meet, and we’re still being compared to fair-skinned, Westernized ideals. It’s no wonder that the global skin whitening market is expected to reach a worth of $11.8 billion by 2026. As a person who has spent a lot of their life wishing they were white, this erasure of POC features in AI is deeply concerning and it takes me back to a problematic time that I thought I’d left behind. Yes, AI might be the future but are we moving forward in technology only to move backward in terms of ethics and diversity? In my opinion, these Westernized AI influencers of color mark a big step backward in the name of innovation — all under the guise of diversity in what feels like a performative, box-ticking exercise.
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