FaceApp making everybody old

The age transformation challenge became viral

FaceApp is a mobile application that transforms your face using different features. The option that became viral is the ‘old’ effect which can realistically make a face look older.

The result may look disturbing but extremely realistic because it’s not just a mask applied to a face because the process is made by an algorithm handled by a neural network. This is a demonstration of how A.I. can be extraordinary and opens many scenarios even though this technology may be scary.

The app offers other options including the one to look younger or experiment new hairstyles but there’s also a gender-swap feature to turn yourself into a man or woman.

Celebrities started sharing their ‘old look’ on Instagram and Twitter, so the challenge became viral.

The app is free but it’s available with different premium plans: monthly and yearly, but you can always buy the full application once.

FaceApp is not Facebook’s property as the name suggests, but belongs to a Russian company, the Wireless Lab. Despite the funny and amazing results, many people raised the potential privacy issues of the application: FaceApp needs a lot of resources to transform photos, so all images are sent to servers to be elaborated by the neural network. The problem is that all pictures can be stored on these servers indefinitely and this might not be the only information that this app may send.

Once again Artificial Intelligence raises new questions about our future and its possible risks.

The website of the application.