China parents turn to affordable AI to predict what unborn babies will look like

A service that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to predict what an unborn baby’s face will look like has become popular among parents in China. Advertised on e-commerce platforms, it claims it can “predict your baby’s future face from their four-dimensional ultrasound image”, and has attracted so much interest it has gone viral. Tens of thousands of customers have paid for the service, which costs from about 10 yuan (US$1.4) to 30 yuan on China’s largest e-commerce platform Taobao, which belongs to Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post. The providers claim they can use AI to generate a picture of a newborn baby’s face from one or more ultrasound images. Also known as an anomaly or anatomy scan, ultrasound is usually done between 18 and 22 weeks of pregnancy to check the baby’s health. It is sometimes possible to identify its gender then as well. Some parents also use the scan as an opportunity to see what their baby looks like. In 2020, a mother in eastern China’s Anhui province cried after viewing hers, saying she had: “Never seen a baby this ugly”. One Taobao shop said it was using the generative AI programme called Midjourney for the process. After inputting the ultrasound images provided by customers and a few text prompts, Midjourney generates four pictures to choose from. Some shops charge more to refine the photos. One image can take from 30 to 120 minutes to complete, according to the shop. However, the likeness and clarity of the faces generated by the AI programme are far from reliable. The generated results are random, and change according to different text prompts. One person said on the social media platform Xiaohongshu that her AI-generated baby’s face looks like that of any other made using artificial intelligence. The service providers cannot guarantee the accuracy of their results, and claim the faces will have “80 to 90 per cent” similarity to the ultrasound faces. Some shops even offer to predict children’s faces up to the age of five. Critics say the idea is flawed, and that the ultrasound scan is not an accurate representation of how a baby’s face will look after birth because it is a composite image from multiple footage taken by several cameras. Also, the face might be blurred if the baby was moving when the image was captured. Parents often view the service as entertainment, or even a lucky charm, rather than a serious, scientific process. In one comment section, a customer called the service a “blind box” and said: “Let’s see if my baby will look like the AI image or not. Wish me luck giving birth,” she said.