Above: Untouched raw screenshot of Yo Roo's avatar
In a virtual world dependent on highly-detailed, heavily customized avatar models, and images depicting them, what qualifies as "real"? In recent months I've noticed the social media feeds of Second Life users increasingly swamped by avatar images heavily enhanced by generative AI programs like Krea AI, Midjourney, and Leonardo AI. They're showing up in ads for avatar content, and in avatar portraits themselves.
The trend is becoming so acute, it's led longtime SL content creator Yo Roo to post a Facebook request for avatar authenticity:
Tired of seeing AI glow-ups along my entire SL Facebook feed. Yeah yeah, you look good… but honestly, everyone all kinda look the same (notice the eyes and nose always widening)
So, ❗️TREND ALERT❗️… I'd like to see what you *really* look like in SL. No edits, definitely no AI, snap me a raw so I can appreciate your SL pixels and uniqueness in all their original glory… bonus points if I can see them ugly SL hands. (I miss them.)
Community members have already posted dozens of "candid" avatar pics in the thread.
Ironically, this backlash to AI enhancement actually echoes a prior backlash over avatar images overly enhanced by Photoshop and other editing tools. But for Roo, there's a difference between the two:
Above: Photoshop-enhanced screenshot of Yo Roo's avatar
"I think [AI enhancement is] an easier option to get top notch edits without having to do the arduous work of learning Photoshop (buying Photoshop) and becoming really experienced with it," she tells me. "I don't fault people for wanting to make their edits look realistic and using the AI enhancers, I just think you have to be honest about your work. If you use AI, then you need to source that you've used AI. You can't take credit for pushing a button on AI and getting amazing, realistic edits without citing how you got there."
She sees a danger of uncredited/unacknowledged AI enhancements degrading Second Life's creative culture:
Above: Krea AI and Photoshop-enhanced screenshot of Yo Roo's avatar
"In my opinion it harms the integrity of photography and Photoshop editing within Second Life. If you're a blogger, it can also be disingenuous to what the item you're blogging truly looks like in-world. You have to be careful with that, even with Photoshop edits. You don't change the item you're blogging, you need that to be honest so when people shop for it, they're not under any marketing guise that it's something more than it actually is.
"AI is really cool, but you have to be honest about your use with it. And I just hope it doesn't discourage people from taking and learning to edit SL pictures in Photoshop, and learning things that they can later explain exactly how they got to a cool end product. Convenience is definitely easier, but not always as rewarding."
Within Second Life's Flickr community, it's already fairly common practice to note whether or not an image was post-processed; we'll probably see similar expectations for AI-enhanced images. Or maybe someone will create a program to paradoxically detect when an avatar image isn't actually real.
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Wagner James Au / New World Notes 
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