Science & Technology

Creators of AI 'death calculator' issue warning to the public

By T.K. Randall
April 30, 2024 ·  10 comments

Would you ask an AI to predict when you will die ? Image Credit: Bing AI / Dall-E 3 Would you want to know the circumstances of your own future death ? Probably not, which is what makes even the very idea of an AI-based 'death calculator' so disturbing.

Developed by US and Danish scientists using the same technology as ChatGPT, the software attempts to calculate exactly when you are likely to die based on a variety of factors about your life such as your health history, income, profession and where you live.

When it was unveiled last year, it was claimed that the software had an accuracy rating of 78%.

It's easy to imagine that something of this nature could create a great deal of stress and despair if someone happened to use it to calculate their 'death date' and took the answer as absolute truth.

Software like this may even need to be regulated, especially if the accuracy improves in the future.In the meantime, though, the creators of Life2vec have issued a warning to the public about something even more problematic - fake death calculators designed to harvest your personal information.

Such fraudulent websites might, for example, offer the same service - requiring you to enter your personal details so that it can provide an accurate calculation.

What it does instead, however, is keep or sell your data and provide you with a bogus answer.

"We are aware of Life2vec social media accounts, and there is at least one fraudulent website," the creators warned, while noting that they have nothing to do with these copycat accounts.

"We are not affiliated with these or any other entities that claim to use our technology."

Source: New York Post | Comments (10)

Tags: Death, Artificial Intelligence