To AI or Not to AI? That is the question

“Wow, you look great, Mariah! Like really great! So great in fact that I barely noticed the fact that you have 6 fingers!” My best friend Kate and I sat in a small café a few blocks from our respective apartments and I showed her my phone with the AI headshots I had recently gotten created while she quipped with me and scrutinized each photo in great detail.

“This one is my favorite,” she jeers and points to my screen. “It looks like you have 2 nose piercings and they are both in the shape of the nose pads from your glasses. Wait! Those ARE the nose pads of your glasses!”

I laugh and pull my phone away from her and back into my purse. “AI certainly isn’t perfect yet,” I retort, “but you have to admit, these look pretty great.”

Kate and I met in the fall of 2020. We both mostly began our careers while the tech industry was in its heyday and have enjoyed being able to experience together the ups and downs and general cyclical nature of tech. We have seen many friends get laid off during company restructuring, changes in senior leadership of our respective companies, but most of all, a massive transition in the way that companies do business. This change is the result of the ubiquitous nature of AI.

And now, AI has crept into something as personal as our faces.

On the surface, AI headshots seem harmless—even exciting. For a fraction of the price of a professional photo session, anyone can upload a handful of selfies and receive dozens of polished, professional-looking portraits in minutes. It’s efficient, accessible, and undeniably cost-effective. For people entering the job market, or those who simply want a LinkedIn refresh without the hassle of booking a photographer, this is a game-changer.

But beneath the glossy veneer lies an important ethical question: what are we really seeing when we look at an AI headshot? Is it you—or is it a slightly “better” version of you, crafted by an algorithm trained on countless other faces? And if it’s the latter, what does that say about our collective relationship with authenticity?

One argument is that AI headshots democratize professionalism. Not everyone has $300 to spend on a photographer, and these tools can level the playing field for people who just need a clean, approachable image for their résumé. In that sense, the technology feels empowering.

Yet, there’s something quietly insidious in the way it subtly reshapes our expectations of what “professional” should look like. These headshots rarely reflect imperfections—wrinkles are softened, features are made more symmetrical, and sometimes we’re given subtle adjustments that edge us closer to a cultural ideal of attractiveness. Even if unintentionally, AI risks pushing us toward a homogenized version of beauty and professionalism that can leave us feeling like our natural selves aren’t good enough.

The danger isn’t just in how we see ourselves, but in how we see each other. If AI-generated headshots become the norm, how will we react when we meet someone in person and they don’t quite match their polished online persona? Will authenticity feel like a flaw?

Of course, there’s also the slippery slope question. If we normalize AI-altered versions of ourselves for LinkedIn, what stops us from using them in dating apps, corporate bios, or even government IDs? What begins as a breakthrough in cost and accessibility could gradually blur into a world where the line between human identity and AI curation is increasingly hard to distinguish.

So, is the use of AI headshots ethical? Perhaps the answer lies in intention and transparency. Using them as a convenient supplement—sure. Passing them off as an exact reflection of reality—less so. Like much of AI’s impact, the technology itself is neutral. It’s how we choose to engage with it that will determine whether it becomes a liberating tool or a quiet erosion of authenticity.

For now, I’ll keep laughing with Kate at my six-fingered hand and two-pierced nose. But I’ll also keep asking myself: when I choose to present the AI-polished version of me, what exactly am I putting forward—and at what cost?

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