A stock image of attractive people dining at a restaurant, probably smiling because they’re so attractive.
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A 22-year-old programmer with a lot of intelligence who probably needs a better way to apply it has created an app which rates restaurants on the attractiveness of its customers. Riley Walz of San Francisco launched looksmapping.com in NYC, LA and SF–by scraping millions of Google reviews and giving “each reviewer’s profile picture to an AI model that rates how hot they are out of 10.”
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Walz appears to be in on the joke. “It’s making fun of A.I.,” he told the New York Times. Another programmer told the publication that “racial biases in artificial intelligence are baked into the programming like original sin,” the Times wrote.
“The model is certainly biased,” the website’s home page states. “It’s certainly flawed. But we judge places by the people who go there. We always have. And are we not also flawed? This website just puts reductive numbers on the superficial calculations we make every day. A mirror held up to our collective vanity.”
The Upper West Side restaurants with the most attractive diners, based on this very flawed model, appear to be concentrated in the lower West 100s: Eli’s Wine Bar at 1012 Amsterdam Avenue (9.8), Mala Town at 929 Amsterdam Avenue (10), The Tang at 929 Amsterdam Avenue (9.1), and Holy Cow Burgers at 23 West 100th Street (10).
On the flip side, here are some of the lowest scores:
- Emerald Inn at 250 West 72nd Street (1.3)
- Santa Fe at 73 West 71st Street (1.9)
- King Food Chen at 489 Amsterdam Avenue (1.9)
- Telio Taverna at 520 Columbus Avenue (1.7)
- The Shell Seafood Kitchen & Bar at 635 Amsterdam Avenue (1.7)
- Trattoria iL Gusto Wine Bar at 625 Columbus Avenue (1.6)
Whether you see it as satire, social commentary, or just a data-driven gimmick, Looks Mapping reflects the uneasy intersection of AI, vanity, and the way we assess each other—and the places we go. While the rankings may be flawed, biased, and arguably absurd, they’ve certainly succeeded in getting people to look.
Here are the Upper East Side’s winners and losers.
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ILTUWS calls it “silly” and says “A 22-year-old programmer with a lot of intelligence who probably needs a better way to apply it..” Yet you give him and his “silly” idea SIX full paragraphs of free public relations.
This reminds me of the time that Jeff Koons did a gallery exhibition, which the NYT absolutely hated, and it gave him four full columns of criticism. Needless to say, he sold every single piece in the show. When he was asked how, he said (and I’m paraphrasing here): “When the NYT gives you four columns, it doesn’t really matter what they say. You can’t’ buy that kind of publicity.”
You have just done the same for this “silly” idea by a guy who “needs a better way” to apply his intelligence.
As the two rules of PR state: “The only bad PR is NO PR,” and “I don’t care what you say about me as long as you spell my name correctly.” This is a PERFECT example of these two rules. And ILTUWS has either fallen into the trap, or is deliberately promoting this guy and his idea for reasons unknown.
I could definitely see how the Emerald Inn could rank last. The higher ranked ones I would guess tend to have a lot of college students.
If you patronizing the Emerald Isle, you are there for a reason; and being perceived as “glamorous” is not it.
Beauty is subjective. I’ll vote for Marea, Nougatine, Essential, Dagon and Fumo.
I’m just looking for a beautiful burger.
There’s 30 seconds of my life I’ll never get back.
And then you spent another 30 seconds you’ll never get back parroting a semi humorous phrase you heard somewhere…
I wholeheartedly agree!
The people (can you CALL them that? They look like porcine cows and long mortuaried groupers)) that eat at the Shell are absolutely benthic and appalling looking and I can say, happily, I’ve never been there nor have I ever looked!
I’ll leave it on my list and see if- when I do go- I can pick those horrible ratings up a little bit!
The Tang is closed!