Distinguishing “AI Profile Images” from ID Photos: Focusing on Hyperréel and Story Contents

This research aims to analyze the differences between AI profile images and traditional photographic evidence and conceptualize them as “Hyperréel content.” Specifically, it applies Jean Baudrillard's concept of simulacra to discuss how AI profile images sever the relationship with the original and create a new identity. Whereas traditional photographs functioned as public records for identification, AI profile images function as new images that maintain similarities to the original, but are stripped of objectivity and authenticity, as they are graphical content based on images provided by AI from users, reorganized by finding statistical commonalities, and reassembled through applications. We also explore the legal and social issues of AI profile pictures and analyze government policies that do not recognize AI profile pictures as ID photos, pointing out the administrative contradictions inherent in them. In doing so, it sheds light on the changing relationship between identity and reality in the digital environment and explores how AI profile images are not just retouched photos, but a new form of simulacrum and derivative Hyperréel content.