You’ve probably been wowed or even concerned by the advances in artificial intelligence recently — but now prepare to be insulted.
Longevity experts in New York City have developed an AI tool that estimates the age of your face based on a selfie photo.
It analyzes your face for six markers, including bags under the eyes and wrinkles. One 39-year-old DailyMail.com staffer who used the tool and was told she had the bags of someone in their late 40s said it had ‘ruined my entire day’.
The face is a window into how fast the rest of the body is aging, with smoking, alcohol and pollution all draining nutrients from the skin leading it to lose elasticity and develop wrinkles faster. A bad diet can also age the face by boosting inflammation, which can also contribute to wrinkles.
To use the tool, you must be over 35 and click here:
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Above are two individuals who have used the tool. Stacy Liberatore, 39, left got the same facial age as her chronological age, or the number of years she has been alive. She described the tool as ‘ruining my entire day’. Dr Robert Lufkin, a radiologist at the University of Southern California, submitted this photo when he was aged 67 or 68 years. The AI said he was 50 years old on average
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) was built by longevity company NOVOS and based on more than 12million pictures of human faces.
The six factors it looks at are eye age and eye bags, as well as wrinkles, uniformity, pores and redness on the face.
To use the tool, people should upload a clear image with their face in the center. Results are sent via email within minutes.
NOVOS warns that poor lighting, camera quality and camera angle can affect the results, as well as a lack of sleep or dehydration.
People who are too young to use the tool will likely get an estimate ahead of their chronological age because it is not calibrated to the age group. A chronological age is the number of years a person has been alive.
‘Although accurate in most cases, it’s not perfect,’ NOVOS said. ‘Please don’t take it personally.’
The AI was trained based on the estimated ages of faces that human evaluators gave during a lab session.
Using the patterns it picked up, the tool was then trained on another 12million human faces to improve the accuracy of its estimates.
Stacy Liberatore, Deputy Science Editor at DailyMail.com, is among those to have tested out the tool.
She received scores for her eye bags and wrinkles that matched her chronological age, which she blamed on having a one-year-old.
‘I was looking back at pictures of myself the other day before having a child and my face looks so young and the cheekbones are high,’ she said.
‘But now I have eye bags and wrinkles, and it is just awful. Thanks for ruining my entire day.’
She added a few hours later: ‘I’ve now gone and bought a ton of face creams.’
Others who have used the tool include University of Southern California radiologist Dr Robert Lufkin, who was told he had a facial age of 50 years when he was 68 or 69 years old. It also gave an eye age estimate of 53 years.
Dr Lufkin said: ‘Maybe I shouldn’t smile as much (eye wrinkles).
‘But I think it’s worth the three extra years in age to be able to express happiness freely.’
Joe Garma, who runs an aging fighting blog, was told by the tool that he looked 18 years younger than his chronological age.
Joe Gamma, a longevity blogger, submitted this photo of himself when he was 59 years old. He got an estimated facial age of 41 years.
He submitted a photo dated to when he was 59 years old, but received an estimate of 41 years for his face and 44 years for his eyes.
A youthful face tends to have high cheekbones, full cheeks and a well-defined jawline. But as someone ages these features gradually fade away.
In the skin, exposure to UV rays, cigarette smoke and pollutants leads to a gradual reduction in moisture content and elasticity.
As muscles move, this leads to the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles — that deepen as someone gets older.
Skin cells also start to take longer to regenerate and shed, leading to a buildup of dead skin cells on the surface that can make it appear dull, rough and less smooth.
Around the eyes, bags can also appear, as the fat that naturally supports the eyes sinks to areas beneath them.
This can also be caused by too little sleep, however, which can trigger fluid retention and dilated blood vessels around the eyes.
A multi-billion dollar industry has sprung up aiming to tackle these signs of aging, offering people injections, supplements and unique facial exercises.
NOVOS says that to avoid skin aging it is worth applying sunscreen and taking supplements that could help to slow aging.
To avoid eye bags, the company urged people to get enough sleep and take supplements to improve aging and skin health.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk