Kelly Ripa Defends Plastic Surgeons Against 'AI Face': 'They're Not Magicians'

Kelly Ripa is weighing in on the latest debate about artificial intelligence.

During the Thursday, May 21, episode of Live With Kelly and Mark, the famed television host defended plastic surgeons while discussing the rise of "AI face" — a cosmetic surgery trend in which people use artificial intelligence tools to generate altered versions of themselves before requesting similar results from doctors.

"Big news, guys. AI face is taking over and driving plastic surgeons crazy," Ripa said while sitting alongside her husband and co-host, Mark Consuelos.

"What’s AI face?" Consuelos asked.

Ripa explained that some people are uploading photos of themselves into AI programs and asking the technology to show them what they would look like after cosmetic procedures.

"So people are taking their faces, putting it into an AI database, like taking a picture, and saying, ‘Give me plastic surgery, show me how I would look with plastic surgery,'" she said. "And AI is doing AI stuff and doing basically a face transplant and then people are going into a plastic surgeon and saying, ‘I would like to look like this.'"

The TV personality stressed that the expectations being created by artificial intelligence are unrealistic for medical professionals.

"They are not magicians. They are not computer science engineers. They are artists," Ripa declared of plastic surgeons. “So it is driving doctors nuts because they not only have to confront patients about what is surgically achievable, but also what is psychologically safe for a patient who thinks that ChatGBT is gonna give them a new face."

Consuelos then compared the trend to the way people heavily filter their photos before posting them online.

“It’s kinda like when people filter their face so much on social media and then you actually —” he began, before Ripa jumped in, clearly fired up by the topic.

"You see them in real life and you’re like, ‘Oh! I had no idea. I would have no way of knowing that this is you,'" she quipped.

"Yeah, to me that always kinda bends my mind a little bit," Consuelos admitted.

Ripa is so against the overuse of filters, she sometimes questions glamorous photos of herself — even when no editing is involved.

"I’ve had Christopher and Ryan get me ready for an event and they do incredible makeup and hair. Incredible," she praised. "And Ryan will always send me a picture. He’s like, ‘Oh I took this picture,’ and I go, ‘What filter is that?’ And he’s like, ‘I didn’t use a filter.'"

"I go, ‘I know what I look like! I just want to know what filter this is,'" she continued. "So it’s like, knowing what you look like is half the battle."