When will I die? How will I die? What can I do to prolong my life? Whether it’s a fleeting thought or a deep-seated obsession, no one can dodge the jabs of existential questions.
It seems obvious that factors such as income, residence, education, profession, and well-being majorly contribute to an individual’s mortality. There is, however, a big difference between acknowledging that certain circumstances will impact longevity and accurately predicting when a person will bite the dust. Is the latter even possible?
If you’re ready to predict your death by AI, Life2vec could potentially become the most accurate life expectancy calculator to date.
This is no mere doomsday AI generator but an extremely sophisticated data-driven tool that provides a glimpse into the future.
Although the software is stored under lock and key at Statistics Denmark – currently inaccessible to the public and big businesses – there have arisen a number of counterfeits that claim to possess similar predictive abilities.
While imitation is usually the sincerest form of flattery, the creators of the genuine AI death predictor have issued a stark warning.
These fakes are not safe and have confirmed that today’s digital landscape needs to be navigated with the utmost vigilance.
Key Takeaways
- Life2vec predicts an individual’s death date with 78.8% accuracy.
- The Life2vec team recently issued a warning about imposter apps and websites.
- There are many Life2vec counterfeits hijacking people’s sensitive information.
- Life2vec could revolutionize healthcare, but it must be approached with caution.
What Is the Life2vec Death Calculator & How Does It Work?
Created by a team of Danish and American scientists, the AI death calculator Life2vec utilizes LLM technology to analyze extensive health and demographic data from millions of records.
The results validate, extraordinarily so, the AI’s uncanny ability to predict mortality rates and lifestyle outcomes.
In December 2023, the Life2vec team published their findings in the journal Nature Computational Science.
The article proposes that “human lives” share “structural similarity to language.” This similarity can be exploited “to adapt natural language processing techniques [that] examine the evolution and predictability of human lives based on detailed event sequences.”
With this in mind, the group of researchers analyzed a subset of six million Danes aged between 35 and 65.
This specific cohort was chosen because it presents a notable challenge when it comes to predicting survival rates.
The model was trained using data collected from 2008 to 2015. Its task was to predict whether individuals were likely to survive for at least four years beyond January 1, 2016.
Subsequently, the researchers checked these predictions against the actual outcomes of the subjects recorded between 2016 and 2020.
The results were extraordinary and somewhat eerie. The AI death prediction calculator was 78.8% accurate.
Life2vec Creators Warn Against Dangers of Counterfeit Chatbots
There has been a tragic recurrence throughout human history of bad actors co-opting the latest technologies for nefarious purposes. It is, therefore, not surprising that Life2vec has been exploited by numerous fraudsters who are attempting to commandeer the tech to appropriate sensitive information.
Counterfeit apps often try to steal email addresses, phone numbers, credit card details, and other sensitive data. They can also infect devices with malware.
Moments of existential angst, morbid curiosity, and prophecies of doom are not new phenomena, and neither is their exploitation.
Seemingly, Life2vec is an easy cash cow. Not only can it satisfy inquiring minds by offering death dates, but it can also provide other tantalizing predictions, such as whether a person is going to be rich.
However, the Life2vec team felt obliged to warn the public about “websites that claim to implement” the predictive algorithm – AI Doom Calculator, Telecharger, Intelligent Death AI, and Death Predictor – are among the most popular.
Such platforms “are fraudulent and have nothing to do with us and our work, so be careful,” the developers announced.
While the Life2vec team is “working on ways to share the model with the wider research communities,” the answer to whether the technology is presently available to the public is a hard “No!”
So, if you come across any entity “claiming to be associated with the Life2vec model,” you can be certain that these are fraudulent, and the best course of action is to steer clear.
The Future of Life2vec
The Life2vec team has been clear that the purpose of the algorithm is not to satisfy people’s morbid curiosity.
It is true that “A key theme of the paper is about the factors that contribute to such early mortality,” but the real interest lies in highlighting and then preventing fatal health issues.
Tina Eliassi-Rad, the project’s AI ethics expert and professor of computer science at Northeastern University, stated that “the tool shouldn’t be used for prediction on real people.” This is because Life2vec “is a prediction model based on a specific data set of a specific population.”
Northeastern Global News elaborated on Eliassi-Rad’s concerns, noting that while the predictions are accurate, “they are based on correlations, highly specific cultural and societal contexts, and the kinds of biases that exist in every data set.”
@northeasternglobalnews A new AI model can predict a human’s lifespan, but Northeastern researchers warn against using it on real people due to limitations in the model’s applicability to different societies. #AI #research #science
Denmark’s culture is different from that of America or Britain, so there is no guarantee that Life2vec can be easily or effectively applied to another society.
Once cultural variables have been considered, the life expectancy calculator may not maintain its high level of accuracy.
While issues around transferability cannot easily be resolved, the future possibilities for Life2vec are nonetheless exciting.
Eliassi-Rad is optimistic about the application of Life2vec in health care.
“I think health care is a good avenue to use this tool as an exploration and perhaps to be able to provide better health care.” She continues, “In particular, it’s suitable because there are people who can be held accountable, as opposed to no accountability whatsoever when peoples’ lives are ruined on some prediction that an AI model makes.”
This lack of accountability that concerns Eliassi-Rad is certainly a primary ethical problem associated with the host of fake Life2vec death calculators.
Not only are they a threat to the security of sensitive information, but they can also deliver devastating and false conclusions with little to no consequence.
The Bottom Line
Much of the viral coverage of the 2023 Life2vec paper gives a false account of the chatbot’s abilities. According to the creators, the model cannot predict “time of death, financial status, or health condition.” Additionally, many sources falsely claim that the model is publicly available online.
These misrepresentations have dangerous consequences. A simple Google search – “AI death calculator free” – leads to an inundation of fake chatbots, and under their veneer of helpfulness lurk insidious motives.
This technology is powerful and attractive for many reasons, but care and accountability are required. Whether it’s a morbid fascination with death or a wish to know how to calculate death benefits for life insurance, there are opportunists ready to turn your demise into a lucrative enterprise.