AI Tool Employs Facial Photos to Estimate Biological Age, Cancer Survival

AI Tool Employs Facial Photos to Estimate Biological Age, Cancer Survival
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US scientists have developed an AI tool that can estimate a person’s biological age from a facial photograph and provide insights into the likelihood of survival among cancer patients.

The technology was developed by researchers at Mass General Brigham, a medical and research network in Massachusetts. According to the German news agency dpa, the tool was trained on more than 40 million images to identify features associated with health and the body’s ageing process.

To evaluate the tool’s performance, researchers compared its estimates for cancer patients with actual medical information to assess the accuracy of its predictions.

The approach could eventually help researchers and doctors gain additional insights into patients’ physical condition. However, further studies are needed to establish how accurate the tool is and whether it can be used reliably in clinical practice.

Biological age reflects the condition of a person’s body and how it is ageing, whereas chronological age is calculated from a person’s date of birth. The two measures do not necessarily correspond.

Advances in medical artificial intelligence have made it possible to analyse data more quickly and identify patterns associated with disease.