Pinterest is today expanding on its efforts to make its product more inclusive with respect to body type diversity with the test of a latest consumer-facing tool that enables users to filter select searches by different body types. The feature, which can work with women’s fashion and wedding ideas at launch, builds on Pinterest’s latest body type technology announced earlier this yr.
The latter involves novel computer vision technology that uses shape, size, and form to discover various body types across the greater than 5 billion images on Pinterest’s platform, and is the AI powering this latest front-end feature. Pinterest had earlier announced the tech could be used to make search more inclusive and to shape its algorithms, citing data in regards to the harms of body size discrimination. Based on the Campaign for Size Freedom, the sort of discrimination impacted around 34 million Americans in 2019, Pinterest noted on the time.
As well as, Megan D’Alessio, manager of inclusion and variety at Pinterest, identified that body dissatisfaction is prevalent for young people, but the problem is way worse for ladies as “50% of adolescent girls are unhappy with their bodies in comparison with 31% of boys,” she said.
That issue has been at the guts of debates over the potential dangers of social media use which have emerged following the discharge of documents by former Meta worker turned whistleblower Frances Haugen, who shared internal data that indicated Instagram had worsened body image issues for some teen girls. The undeniable fact that Meta had been aware of this problem alongside other detrimental mental health concerns, but didn’t act, can be the main focus of a latest lawsuit filed by the U.S. attorneys general of dozens of U.S. states.
Working to get ahead of potential regulations around teen social media use and its impact on body image issues, Pinterest developed technology to enhance the representation of various body types on its platform. With the addition of the brand new body type technology to its suite of “inclusive AI” efforts, which have also included skin tone ranges and hair pattern search filters, Pinterest says it has improved the representation of various body types on the platform by 5x on women’s fashion-related searches within the U.S.
The test of the body type ranges front-facing tool for search is starting to roll out now to Pinterest users, allowing them to go looking for ladies’s fashion or wedding ideas, then refine searches by body types. The corporate believes the feature won’t just improve search results’ diversity, it would also increase engagement with the platform. For example, when Pinterest rolled out its skin tone range filter within the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and Latest Zealand, it saw a 70% year-over-year increase in users saving Pins from across the skin tone ranges of their feeds, it says.
“We’re committed to constructing a more positive web, and with these developments, our hope is to bring a more personalized and inclusive experience on Pinterest,” said Sabrina Ellis, Pinterest’s Chief of Product, in regards to the latest feature. “We’re still on the early stages of testing, and stay up for sharing additional learnings and details soon,” she noted.