AI Predicts Your Lifespan Using Activity Tracking Apps (engadget.com)

Russian scientists have crafted an AI-based algorithm that uses the activity tracking from smartphones and smartwatches to estimate your lifespan with far greater precision than past models. Engadget reports: The team used a convolutional neural network to find the "biologically relevant" motion patterns in a large set of U.S. health survey data and correlate that to both lifespans and overall health. It would look for not just step counts, but how often you switch between active and inactive periods -- many of the other factors in your life, such as your sleeping habits and gym visits, are reflected in those switches. After that, it was just a matter of applying the understanding to a week's worth of data from test subjects' phones. You can even try it yourself through Gero Lifespan, an iPhone app that uses data from Apple Health, Fitbit and Rescuetime (a PC productivity measurement app) to predict your longevity.

Comments

Dalek:

[Tablizer]

"I predict you will live for 4 more seconds. EXTERMINATE!"

Re:Dalek:

[nospam007]

"For instance, if you have $100,000 in savings and you have 10 years left to live, you'd know that you can't spend more than $10,000 per year."

And reduce your gym time, so not to live longer than your money.

Obligatory...

[Anonymous Coward]

Farnsworth: Behold! The death clock. Simply jam your finger in the hole and this read-out tells you exactly how long you have left to live.
Leela: Does it really work?
Farnsworth: Well it's occasionally off by a few seconds. What with free will and all.
Fry: Sounds like fun. How long do I have left to live?
-Fry puts his finger in the hole and the clock dings-
Bender: Ooh! Dibs on his CD player!

More accurately? ...

[Ayano]

So you're telling me that people's lifespan were measured accurately? That assumes they they died as predicted within the test phase.

Given it's Russia they'd need a vodka sensor for that

Key features

[pushing-robot]

Smartphone algorithm achieve very great accuracy for lifespan by complete examination of Russian user lifestyle:

• Diet
• Exercise
• Litres of vodka per day
• Words used to describe President

Re:AI buzzword of 2018-2019

[geek]

There is no such thing as AI FFS. God I wish this fucking dumbass trend of calling everything fucking AI would die in a fire. IT HASN'T BEEN INVENTED YET

Please stop calling everything AI?

[mapkinase]

Could you? A calculator is not AI.

Profit Model

[quantaman]

Congratulations! You have a predicted lifespan of 50 more years!

Establishing connection to driverless car... SUCCESS

Your remaining predicted lifespan is now 10 seconds....

Do you wish to extend your lifespan by upgrading to the paid version for $5000? y/n

Re:Simple calcultor

[Incadenza]

Or just sit down and step up again.

Not all deaths related to health as such

[Kjella]

Here's roughly the breakdown in Norway, of 100k people:
Age 0-1 you have 0.63% die, most due to birth defects
Age 1-40 you have just 1% die, mostly drugs, suicide and massive trauma
Age 41-67 you have another 8.3% die, mostly lifestyle diseases

So 90% will make it to retirement age. From there it's quickly downhill, at 75 it's 80% and 95 only 10% remain. So for practical life planning you can expect to grow old (>75) but not very old (<95), of course if you got a family you should have insurance if you die in a car crash or suffer a massive heart attack but that's not a fate you plan for. I doubt there's any app that can give you a more meaningful practical answer even if they could tweak a few percentages correctly.

In fact I think they got it creepily well planned out, in the last year my life expectancy decreased by 0.97 years. Basically it's almost like an alarm clock counting down, okay you don't know exactly when the end comes but I'm young enough that my death is essentially one year closer per year. It's just the cycle of life I suppose, but it's not like that makes it any better.