How Microsoft’s New Age Detection Software Works (and Doesn't)
We got some surprising results when we scanned pictures of our staff—and of our Neanderthal sculpture.
I look 51 years old in a recent photograph, according to Microsoft’s new computer program How-Old.net. I'm only 36.
My mother fared better. Microsoft thinks my 65-year-old mom is 20, based on another photo I uploaded, which isn’t actually that shocking. Mom still occasionally gets carded when buying wine at the grocery store.
Microsoft’s program has gone viral, with thousands of people uploading their own photos and sharing their horror, or pleasure, at how old the computer says they look, many with the hashtag #HowOldRobot.
Microsoft engineers knew the tool would have trouble getting everyone’s ages right but they wanted to put their software to the test. So on Thursday, the company unveiled How-Old.net, which employs an algorithm that guesses age
