The estimated reading time for this post is 3 minutes
Do look your age? Microsoft wants to guess how old you are with a new website called How-Old.net that guesses the ages of people in photos. What started out as an experiment quickly become viral with over 210,000 faces analyzed within a few hours after the site was launched.
The developers of the program claim their program “isn’t particularly accurate with age, but it’s often good for a laugh and users have fun with it.” The inaccuracies can often be more fun than the correct guesses, but some people do take offense at guesses that are less than flattering.
How to Let Microsoft Guess Your Age
If you:
- like fun,
- forget how old you are, or
- are considering a nip and tuck,
you may want to check out How-Old.net to see how Microsoft, and perhaps the rest of the world, perceives you. To get started you can use an existing photo of yourself and let Microsoft guess your age.
You can also use the Bing search box on the site to find images of others, such as celebrities or famous people in history, to see what age the program guesses them to be.
Check out:
- Gizmodo Microsoft’s Age-Guessing Tool Takes On History’s Most Iconic Portraits
- Mashable How old do these 14 ‘Game of Thrones’ characters really look?
- New York Post What ages did the how-old.net robot guess for these celebrities?
My Test
When I added my photo to How-Old.net, the results were surprisingly accurate:
Nailed it!
While 37 isn’t precisely my chronological age, that’s certainly how old I feel. Well done, Microsoft. No need to repeat the experiment as far as I’m concerned.
Hashtag #HowOldRobot
If you want to follow the fun and maybe share your How-Old photo, head to Twitter and use the hashtag #HowOldRobot. You can see what photos others have used and see how accurate the results have been. Expect to see both praise and criticism, based on how happy people are with their results.
Talkwalker Analysis
I searched Talkwalker for #HowOldRobot and found that the overall sentiment on social media was equal between positive and negative. People in Afghanistan seem particularly pleased with their results while people in Tunisia, well, not so much.
Talkwalker’s Word Cloud associated with #HowOldRobot is also interesting to see what other terms are used with it on social media:
⇒ Don’t miss: Talkwalker — A Treasure Trove of Social Media Insights for more information on using Talkwalker to analyze social media trends.
The Tech Behind How-Old.net
At the How Old Blog, developers of the software explain how they created the program, its admitted inaccuracy for guessing age, and their astonishment at the popularity of the site. They include a graph that shows how quickly the site spread in popularity around the world, with particular interest in Turkey.
Privacy
According to the How-Old.net website and the developer’s blog, Microsoft doesn’t keep your photo or use identifying information:
No we don’t store photos, we don’t share them and we only use them to guess your age and gender. The photos are discarded from memory once we guess. While we use the terms of service very common in our industry, and similar to most other online services, we have chosen not to store or use the photos in any way other than to temporarily process them to guess your age.”
Your Thoughts
Have you let Microsoft try to guess your age? How accurate were the results? Did you test the age of anyone else? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
Lol…oh yes…we did try this one out a few days back 🙂
What fun it was! Just like your age, mine wasn’t the right one but that is alright ….women wouldn’t want their right age mentioned either ways!! Jokes apart, I think because I don’t have any latest picture up that the Bing search could pick up, it just took what was there, and mine isn’t updated in a while now….so showed a few years younger 😉
Thanks for sharing this with us (good that I knew something before you wrote about it for a change!) Happy weekend 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, I’m glad you were happy with the results. Many people are unhappy but it’s still kind of fun to see what age the How Old Robot guesses. It’s funny some teenagers actually want to look younger! That will change eventually, I’m thinking…
Really? Is 107 even a real age? Why I never….
Hello Bill, Yes, you must be very pleased that Microsoft based its guess on your years of wisdom instead of how old you look!
Great Post! What are you trying to get us guys killed. My wife and daughter had some choice words for you. You know women always are sensitive about their age.
Ps I know your age but I won’t tell.
Carlo
Hi Carlo, No one could ever imagine Microsoft being wrong about anything. So it must know better than my birth certificate…
Sorry about your wife and daughter not liking the outcome of How Old Robot. The Wonder of Tech is about making your life easier, not more difficult!
Hi Carolyn
Fun little service I never have seen, before I saw this post of yours. The service was only one year away from guessing my right age. Pretty amazing I must say.
Hi Thomas, Very cool! I’m glad Microsoft was so accurate in guessing your age. It doesn’t get it right every time but it’s pretty amazing when the age is spot on.
This is a fun toy, Carolyn. I used four photos taken at the same place, same time and age guesses ranged from 43 – 56. None were right :-). I particularly liked the Tweet from Ellen you included. She is funny.
It’s a good app from Microsoft, but sometimes, it failed to detect. If you are use a photoshop photo, it would be give you wrong number.
However, it’s fun!
I love your work. You inspire and educate us on your blog. I had fun with this app and many are crazy using this. Great post!