AI Can Now Tell You What’s “Wrong” With Your Face

The Trend: Looksmaxxing — the idea that you can systematically optimize your appearance — continues to grow: now, you can pay an algorithm to tell you what’s “wrong” with your face. Services such as Qoves, Epica, and Facemaxify ask users to upload selfies, then analyze facial proportions, symmetry, skin, and other features, and then produce a list of suggested cosmetic procedures. One Qoves customer profiled by The Guardian paid $330 for a report, which recommended rhinoplasty, eyelid surgery, Botox, and lip filler.

What People Are Saying: In a society obsessed with appearance, the pitch is definitely enticing: upload a photo of your face and get an “objective” analysis of how it can be better. In reality, attractiveness varies across cultures and regions (and even within a single culture or place), and these tools can turn ordinary insecurities into an endless checklist of flaws. Doctors call this AI facial analysis “so destructive,” and note that the scientific basis is not “anywhere clear enough” to measure attractiveness and sell recommendations. Research also links appearance-focused social media use with body dissatisfaction and anxiety, and cosmetic procedures generally don’t resolve the underlying distress associated with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).

What to Know: There’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting to change your appearance, but if it’s driven by looksmaxxing culture, it may feel like less of a choice and more of an obligation.