Nvidia’s new AI tool is giving female game characters a makeover – and gamers are pushing back
- Written by: Sian Tomkinson, Media and Communication Scholar, Edith Cowan University
Last week leading chipmaker Nvidia announced DLSS-5[1] (Deep Learning Super Sampling), a new artificial intelligence (AI) rendering tool it describes as a “breakthrough in visual fidelity for games”. The software takes low-resolution images and uses AI to upscale them, adding what Nvidia calls “photoreal lighting and materials”.
The tool is designed to make video games look more photorealistic, but the examples Nvidia chose to show off the technology revealed something unexpected: the AI doesn’t just makes images sharper and glossier, it also makes characters significantly more conventionally attractive.
The growing backlash[2] is about more than makeup. It points to a broader anxiety about what happens when AI is given control over creative decisions – and whose idea of “better” gets encoded in the algorithms.
A ‘beauty filter’ for games?
Nvidia showcased the technology[3] using Grace Ashcroft, the protagonist of the recently released Resident Evil Requiem.
Before-and-after comparisons showed the software changing her hair colour, adding defined eyebrows, lip tint, and facial contouring. Some gamers quickly labelled it a “beauty filter[4]”, criticising the way it applies what looks like heavy makeup and reshapes her face to be more conventionally attractive.
Resident Evil Requiem’s Grace, without DLSS-5 (left) and with (right). Nvidia / Capcom[5]
The choice of Grace to showcase the technology is worth examining. Resident Evil Requiem features all kinds of monsters and gritty characters, and Nvidia could have used any of them.
The decision to highlight a young, conventionally attractive female character and then make her more glamorous feels pointed. Representation of women in games has been a flashpoint issue for years.
Female characters in games are poorly treated
Historically, female characters in games were depicted as either helpless and weak, or as sexualised objects secondary to a male lead.
The 2000s brought more varied female characters, but attempts at greater diversity triggered a fierce backlash in 2014 during the Gamergate[6] harassment campaign. Women and minorities in and around gaming were targeted with abuse, doxxing, and threats of rape and death[7].
The debate has continued since. Some players were furious at the muscular depiction of Abby Anderson in The Last of Us: Part 2[8], claiming her physique was unrealistic and demanding she be made more conventionally attractive.
DLSS-5 adds a new dimension to this debate. Rather than designers making deliberate choices about how characters look, an algorithm can quietly override those choices in a particular direction.
Looksmaxxing game characters
The specific changes DLSS-5 made to Grace’s face also echo the manosphere’s looksmaxxing trend[9].
Originating in incel communities, looksmaxxing is built on the idea that certain facial features are biologically more sexually desirable to women, prompting some men to pursue techniques that alter their own faces to increase their “sexual market value[10]”. Seeing a piece of software automatically apply similar logic to a female game character raises uncomfortable questions.
Gamers have noticed, and many are responding with humour. The software has been mocked as “yassifying” characters, with one widely shared meme applying the same treatment to God of War’s hulking protagonist Kratos, complete with blue eyeshadow, pink blush, and plump lips. The joke lands because it makes the gendered absurdity obvious.
This reaction mirrors how some gamers once responded to criticism of Aloy, the protagonist of 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn. After complaints that Aloy was “woke” for not wearing heavy makeup or conforming to conventional beauty standards, some gamers sarcastically created “unwokified” versions of the character to make the same point in reverse.
Bad news for game designers, too
A second, distinct complaint about DLSS-5 is that it undermines the artistic choices of developers[12].
Rather than simply sharpening what is already there, the software uses algorithms to alter textures and lighting[13]. The results can have that familiar AI aesthetic: glossy, smooth, bright and generic.
A dark, gritty game like Resident Evil Requiem can end up looking like a luxury skincare ad. In at least one case, in EA Sports FC, the filter changed a real-life player’s likeness so dramatically they became completely unrecognisable[14].
The future of game visuals – and who controls it
It is worth noting that DLSS-5 can genuinely improve visual quality[15] in many games, enriching environments and bringing older character models to life.
Nvidia has also pushed back against critics, with chief executive Jensen Huang insisting DLSS-5 is not a filter and that developers retain control over how it is applied[16].
But the backlash reveals a real tension. Many players objected to Nvidia selecting a young female character and using AI to make her more conventionally attractive and sexualised. Many others objected to AI overriding the deliberate creative choices of game developers.
Both concerns push against the same force: tech companies’ drive to deploy AI as broadly as possible, and to define “better” visuals on their own terms.
References
- ^ DLSS-5 (www.nvidia.com)
- ^ The growing backlash (www.techpowerup.com)
- ^ showcased the technology (www.nvidia.com)
- ^ beauty filter (www.polygon.com)
- ^ Nvidia / Capcom (www.nvidia.com)
- ^ Gamergate (edition.cnn.com)
- ^ rape and death (www.bloomsbury.com)
- ^ Abby Anderson in The Last of Us: Part 2 (www.gameshub.com)
- ^ manosphere’s looksmaxxing trend (theconversation.com)
- ^ sexual market value (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ PurpleDurian7220 / Reddit (www.reddit.com)
- ^ undermines the artistic choices of developers (www.gadgetguy.com.au)
- ^ uses algorithms to alter textures and lighting (www.creativebloq.com)
- ^ completely unrecognisable (www.techradar.com)
- ^ genuinely improve visual quality (au.pcmag.com)
- ^ developers retain control over how it is applied (www.videogameschronicle.com)
