Story highlights
Microsoft unveils site that tries to guess how old you are
Sometimes it's dead on, sometimes it's hilariously wrong
You’re only as old as you think you are.
Or in this case, as old as a computer algorithm thinks you are.
In a machine learning experiment that’s taken social vanity to new heights, Microsoft has created a website that tells you how old you look just by analyzing your photo.
Sometimes it’s dead on. Other times it’s hilariously, outrageously wrong.
It’s simple: Upload a selfie, wait a few seconds – then the machine gives you a number.
And since it can analyze anyone’s photo, you can compare yourself to your friends, family, and foes.
But guessing someone’s age is a dangerous game, even for a robot. That’s probably why the site comes with a sheepish apology. “Sorry if we didn’t quite get the age and gender right,” it says after each result.
The company unveiled the website at a conference in late April as a way to show off its new software.
Part of a new initiative called Project Oxford, Microsoft says you could use this face detection technology for tasks like sorting through a large photo collection.
But we’re human – so we’ll probably just use it to judge our own looks.
And everyone else’s.
CNN Money’s Heather Kelly and journalist Wayne Chang contributed reporting.
