Microsoft has launched a new website aimed at guessing users’ ages by analyzing a single photo. However, judging by the initial results, it seems a bit crap.
The new How-Old.net site, which has already managed to offend half of Internet users and spawned parodies from the others, encourages users to upload pictures only to tell most of them that they look a lot older than they actually are.
This 33-year-old, who looks young for his age, was rated 38 and 40 on the first page when he tried to spoof the results with a younger-looking photo from a more favorable angle. The cheek of everything! At least the gender got it right.
The much younger TrustedReviews news editor was slammed with an estimate of 41, so it’s not just sour grapes either.
Microsoft says it consults a database of photos of known age and gender to make its prediction, but says it’s still working on perfecting the tool.
Continue reading: Microsoft Build 2015: Just the highlights
Word is the whole thing only took a day to put together, so we’re officially blaming it on teething rather than it’s time to look for new moisturizers and maybe even plastic surgery solutions.
The whole thing seems more geared towards testing the power of Microsoft’s machine learning and Azure platforms, so try not to be too offended if it thinks you should collect your pension.