Microsoft unveils site that tries to guess how old you are – try it !
(CNN) – 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 Thursday 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.