Love the environment, then 'Don't' make AI-made Barbie-style doll avatars

The Barbie Box trend is causing quite a stir on social media. In this trend, users are transforming their selfies into miniature Barbie-style doll avatars using advanced generative AI tools and sharing them on social media platforms. This trend—where photos are uploaded along with detailed prompts to mimic Barbie's iconic packaging and glitzy style—has seen rapid adoption among regular users as well as influencers to turn personal branding into a playful yet artful experience. However, while the trend offers a creative digital makeover that lets individuals step into a miniaturised Barbie universe, it is also raising concerns. Critics point to the significant energy and data consumption inherent to these AI processes, stressing that such creative fun could inadvertently contribute to environmental pressures.

In an interview with BBC, Professor Gina Neff of Queen Mary University London said that ChatGPT is "burning through energy", and the data centers that power it use more electricity annually than 117 countries.
“ChatGPT Barbie represents a triple threat to our privacy, our culture and our planet. While the personalisation might feel nice, these systems are putting brands and characters into a blender with no responsibility for the slop that emerges,” Neff noted.
Concerns have also been raised that copyrighted data may have been used to develop the image-generating technology without any compensation.
Jo Bromilow, director of social and influencer at PR and creative agency MSL UK, also said to the BBC: "Is a cute, funny result really worth it? If we're going to really use AI properly, we have to set guardrails around how we use it conscientiously.”
Meanwhile, Jasmine Enberg, principal social media analyst at eMarketer, predicts that technology now makes content creation both quicker and easier, which may also speed up user annoyance on social media. However, she expects AI-driven trends to grow more common "as the tech becomes a more regular part of our digital lives."
"Generative AI makes it easier and quicker for people to create and jump on trends," Enberg noted.