How old do you really look?

Microsoft recently launched a new website called How-Old.net that takes any photo and can tell you how old you actually look and your gender. Some have said that the algorithm is spot on. Others haven’t been as lucky and have had their feelings hurt by mistakes in age and gender. So as a warning, before you get lost playing on this website to see how old you look, you may not be happy with your results. In our office, most people got within 5-10 years of their actual age. I was not so lucky, and after uploading a picture of me and my sisters, I was told I was 39 (I’m 21). But in all fairness, they also guessed that my sister, who was 10 in this photo was 24. The closest age guess was on my 16 year old sister, who they said was 13.

So either mature faces run in the family, or this program still has some tweaks to work out. Regardless, Microsoft showcasing this innovative facial recognition shows just how smart computers are getting and the amazing and endless possibilities and it will be interesting to see the improvements of this software and what it means for the future of computer and software development.

If you want to check it out yourself, upload a photo to How-Old.net.

Featured Image: Shutterstock

Lauren Nickl

Native-Californian twenty something living in Boston and trying to figure out life. Lover of books, coffee, and traveling and can be found spending any free time reading, binge watching Netflix, and planning adventures.