Anyone can now upload photos to try Mass General’s FaceAge tool

Key Points:

• FaceAge is an AI tool that estimates a person's biological age from facial photographs and allows users to track aging over time, with over 10,000 participants since its quiet launch in March.
• Researchers are using the data to study links between lifestyle, diseases, and perceived age, emphasizing the tool is for research, not clinical diagnosis.
• The AI model was trained on over 40 million images and fine-tuned to predict biological age (FaceAge) and cancer survival (FaceSurvival), with findings showing that patients who appear older than their actual age have a higher risk of death.
• FaceAge is currently being tested in clinical trials to identify frail older cancer patients needing extra support and to predict surgical risks, aiming to improve personalized treatment decisions.
• The AI focuses on specific facial regions to make predictions, and researchers found that factors like smoking strongly correlate with looking biologically older, while makeup, lighting, and most cosmetic surgeries have minimal effect on the tool’s accuracy.