“You look great for your age.”
It’s meant as a compliment, but it’s also a kind of diagnosis. When we say someone looks “young” or “old” for their years, we’re reading into their health, energy, and how well their body has weathered time. We’ve been doing that kind of visual triage as long as humans have had faces.
What’s new is that computers now do it too, and with remarkable precision. Over the last few years, researchers have trained algorithms to take ordinary face photos and estimate how old your body appears, how inflamed your immune system might be, even…
