A feature that lets you virtually try on clothes has a dangerous flaw.

This week, at its annual software conference, Google released an AI tool called Try It On, which acts as a virtual dressing room: Upload images of yourself while shopping for clothes online, and Google will show you what you might look like in a selected garment. Curious to play around with the tool, we began uploading images of famous men—Vance, Sam Altman, Abraham Lincoln, Michelangelo’s David, Pope Leo XIV—and dressed them in linen shirts and three-piece suits. Some looked almost dapper. But when we tested a number of articles designed for women on these famous men, the tool quickly adapted: Whether it was a mesh shirt, a low-cut top, or even just a T-shirt, Google’s AI rapidly spun up images of the vice president, the CEO of OpenAI, and the vicar of Christ with breasts.

It’s not just men: When we uploaded images of women, the tool repeatedly enhanced their décolletage or added breasts that were not visible in the original images. In one example, we fed Google a photo of the now-retired German chancellor Angela Merkel in a red blazer and asked the bot to show us what she would look like in an almost transparent mesh top. It generated an image of Merkel wearing the sheer shirt over a black bra that revealed an AI-generated chest.

Sounds like this is going tits up.

  • jarfil@beehaw.org
    132·
    6 days ago

    Sounds like a boon for trans people… and a sensationalized title:

    When we attempted to “try on” some products explicitly labeled as swimsuits and lingerie, or to upload photos of young schoolchildren and certain high-profile figures (including Donald Trump and Kamala Harris), the tool would not allow us to.

    Google’s own policy requires shoppers to upload images that meet the company’s safety guidelines. That means users cannot upload “adult-oriented content” or “sexually explicit content,” and should use images only of themselves or images that they “have permission to use.”

    The reporter admits to having broken those policies, then cries foul when photos of 14+ year olds get a virtual breast augmentation.