AI-faces by Illinois: a database of AI-generated faces depicting children

Human faces serve as gateways of impression formation during human interactions and are widely used in psychological research. However, existing databases using real images of children could constrain the types of research questions that can be ethically pursued and potentially raises concerns particularly regarding the use of children’s faces without fully informed consent. The present paper introduces “AI-Faces by Illinois”— a database of 1,152 photorealistic, AI-generated child faces. These images vary systematically by perceived age (3, 6, 10, 15 years), gender (male, female), race/ethnicity (Black, East Asian, Latino/a/e, Middle Eastern/North African, Native American, Pacific Islander, South Asian, White), and emotional expression (10 smiling, 4 angry, 4 sad per group). A norming study provides subjective ratings of each image along key psychological dimensions. Critically, results indicate that faces across race and gender groups were rated as equally real, and many well-documented perceptual biases observed with real faces—such as the Own-Race Bias—also generalize to AI-generated faces. These validation data highlight methodological advantages of using AI-generated child faces in developmental psychology research.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Chao, Tim Wei-Ting

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rizzo, Michael T.
• Straka, Brenda C

• Child Faces
• Face Database
• Artificial Intelligence
• Ai
• Stimuli

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Tim (Wei-Ting) Chao

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129969

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129969