PSL: the beauty scale AI has made meaningless
The PSL scale, which rates facial attractiveness from 1 to 8, collides with AI: when images are generated, its claim to objectivity falls apart.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
PSL, the beauty scale AI has stripped of all meaning
A numerical scale that promises to measure beauty "objectively" from 1 to 8 has a problem: when AI-generated images are indistinguishable from real ones, what exactly is it measuring? PSL, a scale born out of digital seduction subcultures and "lookism", evaluates facial proportions, symmetry and bone structure. But its supposed objectivity crumbles when the examples cited turn out, depending on who is looking, to be real models or faces fabricated by AI.
The dispute has spilled over into a space devoted to responsible consumption, and not everyone is celebrating it. Between the blunt claim that they are "real models" and the opposite claim that they are "made with AI", the exchange of opinions has turned into a quagmire where visual evidence is no longer enough. Worse still: the idea that "PSL can be improved" collides with the reality of the pixel. If a face is a digital file, any improvement is as fake as the face itself.
The conclusion is uncomfortable: AI has not only blurred the line between reality and simulation, it has also emptied out any attempt to rank beauty with supposedly scientific rules. When you can no longer tell a human face from a synthetic one, what is the point of a score from 1 to 8? The PSL scale, like the eye that applies it, is left staring into the void.
A numerical scale that promises to measure beauty "objectively" from 1 to 8 has a problem: when AI-generated images are indistinguishable from real ones, what exactly is it measuring? PSL, a scale born out of digital seduction subcultures and "lookism", evaluates facial proportions, symmetry and bone structure. But its supposed objectivity crumbles when the examples cited turn out, depending on who is looking, to be real models or faces fabricated by AI.
The dispute has spilled over into a space devoted to responsible consumption, and not everyone is celebrating it. Between the blunt claim that they are "real models" and the opposite claim that they are "made with AI", the exchange of opinions has turned into a quagmire where visual evidence is no longer enough. Worse still: the idea that "PSL can be improved" collides with the reality of the pixel. If a face is a digital file, any improvement is as fake as the face itself.
The conclusion is uncomfortable: AI has not only blurred the line between reality and simulation, it has also emptied out any attempt to rank beauty with supposedly scientific rules. When you can no longer tell a human face from a synthetic one, what is the point of a score from 1 to 8? The PSL scale, like the eye that applies it, is left staring into the void.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (15 replies).
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