The tool is designed to make video games look more photorealistic, but the examples Nvidia chose to show off the technology revealed something unexpected: the AI doesn’t just makes images sharper and glossier, it also makes characters significantly more conventionally attractive.

The growing backlash is about more than makeup. It points to a broader anxiety about what happens when AI is given control over creative decisions – and whose idea of “better” gets encoded in the algorithms.

A ‘beauty filter’ for games?

Nvidia showcased the technology using Grace Ashcroft, the protagonist of the recently released Resident Evil Requiem.

Before-and-after comparisons showed the software changing her hair colour, adding defined eyebrows, lip tint, and facial contouring. Some gamers quickly labelled it a “beauty filter”, criticising the way it applies what looks like heavy makeup and reshapes her face to be more conventionally attractive.

The choice of Grace to showcase the technology is worth examining. Resident Evil Requiem features all kinds of monsters and gritty characters, and Nvidia could have used any of them.

The decision to highlight a young, conventionally attractive female character and then make her more glamorous feels pointed. Representation of women in games has been a flashpoint issue for years.

Female characters in games are poorly treated

Historically, female characters in games were depicted as either helpless and weak, or as sexualised objects secondary to a male lead.

The 2000s brought more varied female characters, but attempts at greater diversity triggered a fierce backlash in 2014 during the Gamergate harassment campaign. Women and minorities in and around gaming were targeted with abuse, doxxing, and threats of rape and death.

The debate has continued since. Some players were furious at the muscular depiction of Abby Anderson in The Last of Us: Part 2, claiming her physique was unrealistic and demanding she be made more conventionally attractive.

DLSS-5 adds a new dimension to this debate. Rather than designers making deliberate choices about how characters look, an algorithm can quietly override those choices in a particular direction.

Looksmaxxing game characters

The specific changes DLSS-5 made to Grace’s face also echo the manosphere’s looksmaxxing trend.

Originating in incel communities, looksmaxxing is built on the idea that certain facial features are biologically more sexually desirable to women, prompting some men to pursue techniques that alter their own faces to increase their “sexual market value”. Seeing a piece of software automatically apply similar logic to a female game character raises uncomfortable questions.

Gamers have noticed, and many are responding with humour. The software has been mocked as “yassifying” characters, with one widely shared meme applying the same treatment to God of War’s hulking protagonist Kratos, complete with blue eyeshadow, pink blush, and plump lips. The joke lands because it makes the gendered absurdity obvious.

This reaction mirrors how some gamers once responded to criticism of Aloy, the protagonist of 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn. After complaints that Aloy was “woke” for not wearing heavy makeup or conforming to conventional beauty standards, some gamers sarcastically created “unwokified” versions of the character to make the same point in reverse.

Bad news for game designers, too

A second, distinct complaint about DLSS-5 is that it undermines the artistic choices of developers.

Rather than simply sharpening what is already there, the software uses algorithms to alter textures and lighting. The results can have that familiar AI aesthetic: glossy, smooth, bright and generic.

A dark, gritty game like Resident Evil Requiem can end up looking like a luxury skincare ad. In at least one case, in EA Sports FC, the filter changed a real-life player’s likeness so dramatically they became completely unrecognisable.

The future of game visuals – and who controls it

It is worth noting that DLSS-5 can genuinely improve visual quality in many games, enriching environments and bringing older character models to life.

Nvidia has also pushed back against critics, with chief executive Jensen Huang insisting DLSS-5 is not a filter and that developers retain control over how it is applied.

But the backlash reveals a real tension. Many players objected to Nvidia selecting a young female character and using AI to make her more conventionally attractive and sexualised. Many others objected to AI overriding the deliberate creative choices of game developers.

Both concerns push against the same force: tech companies’ drive to deploy AI as broadly as possible, and to define “better” visuals on their own terms.

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Nearly a month into an illegal war with Iran, I think it’s time to ask who’s in charge?

It’s not the commander-in-chief. Donald Trump told reporters yesterday that the war is over, that regime change has been achieved and that the Iranians “want to make a deal so badly.”

Literally, as the president was saying this, Israel was firing on Iran. Iran was firing on Israel (as well as on Gulf states.) Before that, Iran cut deals with Japan and India to allow tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. It’s shipping its own oil while others are charged millions.

Trump also said “we’re talking to the right people,” but whoever they are, they are not in a position of authority. The US sent Iran a 15-point ceasefire plan, including the removal of its enriched uranium. The Post broke news of the plan at 10:05 this morning. Within half an hour, the AP broke news of Iran’s rejection of it. Then, minutes later, the AP said Iran has issued its own terms of peace, including war reparations and sovereignty of the strait.

The only thing Trump has control of right now is the markets. Oil prices eased and stocks rose after he said the US and Iran would be negotiating. The markets responded despite his record of market manipulation and despite Iran’s insistence that no such talks existed. Even so, Trump’s lies seem to be working in more ways than one. He’s keeping the price of a gallon of gas from reaching $5 while apparently enabling $1.5 billion in insider-trading profits.

Despite the lies, one truth-teller has emerged, James Mattis. The former secretary of defense said, “we’re in a tough spot … and I can’t identify a lot of good options.” Trump can’t quit, he said, without turning over control of the strait to Iran. But neither can he ensure security, he said, even if the US controlled the strait. “They’ve got anti-ship cruise missiles that could be fired off the back of a pickup truck that can go 100 miles,” he said. “So there’s the problem.”

Mattis sees tactics, not strategy. We “are fighting in a markedly limited war, and I think that what we’re seeing is a situation where targetry never makes up for a lack of strategy.”

Why is Trump saying the Iran war is over, despite 1,000 soldiers and 2,200 Marines being dispatched in what seems to be a build-up for an invasion of Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil depot. That’s the question I asked the Secretary of Defense Rock, the anonymous publisher of History Does You, a newsletter about the intersection of military and civilian life.

Who’s in charge?

The war isn’t over. Is gaslighting the only thing Trump has left?

Trump is probably not getting the best information. NBC News reported this morning that his briefings are essentially a CENTCOM highlight-reels in addition to what people around him are saying. There doesn’t appear to be any formal inter-agency process to measure success so what the president is thinking is what the goal is. See enough stuff getting blown up, and I could see why Trump would be saying that, but as they say, the enemy gets a vote.

So it’s like James Mattis said, lots of tactics (“targetry”) but no strategy? The inner circle can make the president feel good and make themselves feel good. Meanwhile, Israel keeps firing, Iran keeps firing and the rest of us see our incomes go into the gas pump.

As far as I can tell.

As I wrote: “One of the striking features of the current crisis has been the degree to which official statements appear to shift within hours of one another and often contradict the statement that preceded it. At times the operation is framed as a narrowly limited effort to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. At other moments it is presented as an opportunity for the Iranian people to overthrow the regime. Still other statements emphasize that the United States is not seeking regime change but ‘the regime sure did change.’ This ping ponging makes it almost impossible to determine whether the campaign is pursuing a single coherent political or military objective or several overlapping ones that have not been reconciled in the slightest at the strategic level.”

The Post broke news of a ceasefire plan 30 minutes ago. Then, in the last minute, Iran said no deal. Trump is gaming markets with lies. Is Iran catching on to what he’s doing?

I don’t think Iran is monitoring the markets, but why would they negotiate? The United States hasn’t negotiated in good faith at all. Yes, they have taken a tremendous pounding, but they’ve essentially turned the strait into a personal tollway, and the United States has made very little effort to open it up militarily. It appears the IRGC and other political leadership have been able to consolidate power despite the constant attempts to kill them. There might be a threshold where they decide to seek an off ramp, but I don’t see one at the moment.

Indeed, they are acting like they have the advantage. Per the AP, just now: “Iran issues its own ceasefire proposal, calling for war reparations and sovereignty over Strait of Hormuz.” Given what we know about Trump, he might even accept those terms.

I have a hard time believing Trump would accept war reparations and sovereignty over the strait. The Gulf Cooperation Council states would not like that. I suppose if some American military operation went off the rails and congressional Republicans were breathing down his neck, he might accept maximalist Iranian demands, but I don’t think we are even close to that at the moment. “Ceasefire then negotiate” seems like the most obvious path but maybe Trump wants to try and capture Kharg Island before seriously trying to negotiate.

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At Fal.Con Gov 2026, CrowdStrike is introducing new innovations to accelerate modernization and strengthen cyber defense of government systems, while helping agencies meet some of the most rigorous compliance standards within a FedRAMP-authorized environment. 

Cybersecurity is national security. Ransomware threatens public safety and continuity of operations. Supply chain compromise multiplies impact. Nation-state actors target critical infrastructure for strategic disruption. Modern adversaries propelled by AI are moving with unprecedented speed and stealth, overwhelming human teams and exploiting gaps created by tool sprawl and fragmented visibility. 

Agencies face a historic dual mandate: Modernize security operations while preserving compliance, continuity, and public trust. But legacy architectures and acquisition models create modernization friction by locking budgets into inflexible licensing, forcing manual compliance work, and limiting adaptability as AI, IoT, and cloud technologies expand the attack surface. The consequences are higher risk and reduced readiness and resilience when every second counts.

CrowdStrike was built to help government agencies meet this moment. The CrowdStrike Falcon® platform delivers a unified, AI-native foundation to reduce complexity, cut noise, and enable action at the speed of the adversary. Below we highlight what’s new and what’s coming later this year.

What’s New in GovCloud

Modernized Mission Security with Falcon Flex

Today’s adversaries move faster than procurement cycles. As mission demands evolve, legacy acquisition models and point-product architectures create unnecessary friction. 

To help agencies respond at the speed of modern adversaries, CrowdStrike Falcon® Flex is now operationally supported for U.S. federal, state, and local government agencies. Falcon Flex shifts agencies from product-by-product buying to a flexible, commitment-based model aligned to long-term platform outcomes, helping accelerate consolidation, simplify operations, and adopt new capabilities without delays. 

With Falcon Flex, agencies can:

• Reduce procurement friction by accessing the broader Falcon platform through a single, commitment-based model aligned to U.S. government acquisition frameworks.
• Adopt new Falcon platform capabilities when needed without adding tools, contracts, or administrative overhead.
• Evolve security operations as mission priorities change, shifting commitment across the Falcon platform to stay aligned with active operational requirements.
• Maximize the value of the CrowdStrike partnership by applying committed investment where it delivers the greatest mission impact over time.

The result: faster platform adoption, stronger cross-domain integration, and security operations aligned to real-world mission demands.

Agentic Investigations and Natural Language Interactivity

Modern investigations demand speed, scale, and consistency — but manual workflows, swivel-chair tooling, and knowledge gaps keep security teams reactive. CrowdStrike® Charlotte AI™, CrowdStrike’s agentic security analyst, is a force multiplier for security teams, helping agencies streamline operations, automate time-intensive work, and scale expertise at machine speed.

Building on our first wave of FedRAMP-authorized Charlotte AI capabilities, we’re introducing two more Charlotte AI capabilities into GovCloud later this year: 

• Natural language conversations: Analysts will be able to interact with the Falcon platform in plain language to quickly surface the right context, retrieve intelligence, and direct the appropriate workflows to accelerate decision-making and reduce time-intensive, manual work.
• Response Agent: Analysts will be able to significantly accelerate response using Charlotte AI’s Response Agent, which auto-generates and answers guiding questions during investigations. The Response Agent is trained on the frontline decisions and operational playbooks of the elite CrowdStrike Falcon® Complete managed detection and response (MDR) analyst team.

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