AI-Powered 'Death Clock' App Predicts Life Expectancy, Sparks Debate on Health and Ethics

When will I die? AI-based Death Clock app gains popularity

The app analyzes data from 1,200 studies involving 61 million data points to provide personalized life expectancy predictions. The Death Clock app, officially launched on September 18, has quickly gained popularity among users worldwide, boasting over 125,000 downloads and ranking 121st among the most downloaded health and fitness apps in the Apple App Store. Developed by Brent Franson, the application utilizes artificial intelligence to predict an individual's date of death and offers personalized recommendations to promote healthier living. Franson claims that new algorithms provide a more accurate measurement of life expectancy -- a kind of personal "Death Clock" -- significantly improving upon standard life tables. The app predicts life expectancy using data collected from over 1,200 studies involving more than 61 million participants, as detailed by Republic World. Users are required to complete a comprehensive questionnaire that includes basic demographic information such as age, gender, and ethnicity, as well as detailed questions about family history, mental health, and chronic diseases. The app then employs advanced algorithms to analyze factors like diet, exercise habits, stress levels, and sleep patterns to generate an estimate of life expectancy. While many platforms use actuarial life tables to calculate a person's date of death, Death Clock claims to provide a more accurate prediction through its advanced AI approach. "Probably no date is more important in life than the day you die," Franson stated, according to Republic World. The application not only predicts the date of death but also offers personalized recommendations to improve lifestyle habits, including nutrition, physical activity, and stress management, based on users' daily routines. Users are finding value in understanding how their habits can affect their life expectancy and are guided toward healthier choices, as described by Rossiyskaya Gazeta and Ναυτεμπορική. Despite its grim name and design, which features the Grim Reaper, the Death Clock app has attracted users keen on living healthier lives. The app also includes a countdown clock as a constant reminder of the expected date. In addition to promoting healthier living, the Death Clock app has practical implications for financial planning. Life expectancy is a critical factor in financial calculations, affecting areas such as pension payments and life insurance for both governments and individuals. "A huge concern for elderly people, our retirees, is outliving their money," financial planner Ryan Zabrowski told Bloomberg, highlighting the importance of accurate mortality estimates. The combination of predictive AI with practical applications for life insurance, retirement planning, and health management could mark a significant shift in how people approach both the present and the future. These predictions might influence retirement planning, life insurance policies, and pension fund calculations, revolutionizing financial planning by allowing individuals to make more informed decisions about their retirement savings and investments. Numerous studies, including the work of Nobel laureate economist Angus Deaton titled "Deaths of Despair," have revealed a significant gap between how long the rich live and how long the poor live. A study published by the American Medical Association found that the life expectancy gap between the richest percent and the poorest percent at age 40 was nearly 15 years for men and 10 years for women, Republic World notes. Anthony Ha, a reporter at TechCrunch, tried the Death Clock application, which predicted he would die on February 28, 2074, at the age of 90. The app suggested that by adopting better habits, he might live until the age of 103. Stay updated with the latest news! Subscribe to The Jerusalem Post Newsletter Subscribe Now This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq

This AI app claims it can calculate the day you'll die

Robert Heinlein's first short story, titled Life-Line, was published in 1939 and tells the tale of the inventor of a machine that can precisely predict when you'll die with 100% precision. Eighty-five years after that chilling tale of inevitability versus free will, you can download an app called Death Clock that uses AI to attempt the same feat. Admittedly, the app doesn't claim infallibility and is aimed more at encouraging you to do things that will improve your outlook but my first impression of technology predicting your demise remains the same. The Death Clock app predicts your "death day" based on details you provide about your lifestyle: diet, exercise, stress levels, sleep - you know, the usual culprits. Developed by a company called Most Days, the app uses artificial intelligence trained on a massive dataset of over 1,200 studies involving 53 million people, according to a Bloomberg report. You start by entering details about how often you exercise, sleep quality, stress, and other factors. The app crunches the data and gives you your "death day." It's not just a number, though. Once you've entered your info, the app offers a macabre farewell card featuring the Grim Reaper. The point isn't to shock so much as to use the result to encourage healthier habits by giving you a stark reminder of your mortality. And judging by its popularity - it's been downloaded more than 10,000 times on Google Play - it's working for a lot of people. Beyond morbid curiosity, it's understandable why individuals might want to know an estimate of their lifespan. You might seek evidence of where you can improve your lifestyle to be healthier. It might even inform your retirement plans. But, there are two glaring problems with the Death Clock as a concept. For one, no matter how accurate the numbers you submit, they don't really tell the whole story of your health and well-being, let alone your ultimate lifespan. Most of the numbers we rely on to determine lifespan are just averages. The Death Clock may boast about a customized prediction, but the output can only match the quality of data it uses to compare your numbers. The other issue with the app is more about what it might mean for society if AI were relied on for measuring lifespan and health. Imagine how insurance companies, employers, and government services might rapidly become (even more of) a dystopian maze where being young and healthy might not matter for getting healthcare or a job if an AI decides you're doomed to early death. Like most AI products, the issue is about when human judgment is replaced with AI and numbers without context. It's hard enough when insurance firms only have actuarial tables and your medical records to use; an AI judgment system would make things much worse. If you're interested in what the Death Clock can tell you about improving your lifestyle, that's fine. Just be sure not to take it as gospel, one way or another. The reaper may be on his way for all of us, but no AI can tell you when he's sharpening his scythe

The Death Clock App Uses AI to Predict When You're Likely to Die

I'm Finally Leaving Google Chrome, and These Are the 4 Reasons Why Assuming you enjoy a reasonable quality of life, you probably want to carry on living as long as possible. And yet death comes for all of us eventually. But when? That's what the makers of a new app think they have figured out. With some help from artificial intelligence. ✕ Remove Ads The Death Clock App Predicts When You're Likely to Die The makers of a new app called Death Clock think they can predict when you're likely to die. The app uses information you provide about yourself coupled with AI analysis of 1,200 life expectancy studies. The AI was trained on these studies, ensuring that, statistically speaking, it can make logical guesses about your death date. To find out when Death Clock's AI thinks you're likely to die, you need to provide some personal information. Starting with the basics such as your age and race, before moving onto lifestyle choices such as your diet and exercise habits. Close Death Clock is free to download and install. And it's also free to find out when the app thinks you're likely to die. However, that does mean feeding lots of personal (and potentially sensitive) data into the app, so be sure to do your research before blindly inputting any information about yourself. ✕ Remove Ads Once Death Clock has informed you when it thinks you're likely to die based on the information you feed it, the app will suggest ways to prolong your life. However, that part of the equation is hidden behind a paywall, with an annual subscription fee of $40 required to break through it. I'm Not Sure That I'm Brave (or Dumb) Enough to Find Out In order to write about this app from a place of experience, I installed it on my phone, and entered some information when prompted. However, not only did I not provide any accurate information, I also stopped short of finding out the age I'm likely to die (according to Death Clock). You can call me a coward if you want, but some things are better left well alone. Including, for me at least, predictions about when I'm likely to shuffle off this mortal coil. However, if you're happy to know the number based on cold, hard statistics, then you should check the Death Clock app out. It will be especially useful for anyone willing to pay the annual subscription fee to unlock the advice about how to live longer. ✕ Remove Ads

I tried an AI Death Clock app to predict the date I'll die

AI may have its detractors, but never let it be said that the technology isn't at least helping us predict our own demise. Death Clock is a fun (!) AI app from San Francisco developer Brent Franson, founder of habit tracker Most Days, which broadly analyses health and behaviour to make a guess at a) the exact date of your death, and b) what's most likely to finally do you in. "Death Clock AI analyzes your life choices to determine when you will die, and how you can improve your habits to live even longer," reads the site. (The prediction bit is free, but if you want to unlock the ways you can supposedly lengthen your mortal years, you have to stump up for the $79.98 annual subscription.) Needless to say, curiosity got the better of me. Would I live to the ripe old age of 90, or be mown down in my prime? I had to know! Less of a horror movie situation involving cursed countdowns induced by malevolent spirits, the app itself is basically a series of health-related questions, ranging from age and lifestyle to eating and drinking habits. Once you've completed the questionnaire, you're greeted with a cheery series of grim reaper-illustrated tiles telling you the exact date you're going to die, and the things most likely to kill you. I got cardiovascular disease as my number one! So, how accurate is this thing? On the one hand, the company claims the AI model draws on stats from over 1,200 studies, including those carried out by universities like Stanford, Berkeley, and UCLA. On the other hand, the questionnaire feels a touch narrow. Although I was asked about the average age of my grandparents, for instance, I wasn't asked many details about family health in general. The app also didn't ask about my daily travel habits, or whether or not I have any particularly risky hobbies. Ultimately, it said I'd die at 83, but with some tweaking -- and that's where the annual fee comes in -- I could draw things out until I hit 96. Rather than a harbinger of doom, it's probably better to view the app (at least the paid version) as a way of tweaking your daily habits to maximise your own health and longevity.

This AI App Predicts When You Will Die and How to Improve Life Expectancy

The AI app also provides personalised habit recommendations Death Clock, a new app on the block, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to determine when a user will die. It is available for both Android and iOS as a free app. It asks users to fill out a questionnaire and guesses people's life expectancy on the basis of the answers provided. Despite its morbid overtones, the app brands itself as "AI-powered longevity" and shares personalised recommendations to improve users' life expectancy and delay the predicted death by suggesting healthier habits. The Death Clock app is available on both the App Store and Play Store, however, it can currently only be downloaded in the US. Its app listing on the Play Store states that it uses "advanced AI technology" to help people understand how their habits can influence their life expectancy and guide them towards healthier choices. Notably, apps and websites similar to Death Clock that predict when a person might die have existed since the early 2000s, but most of these platforms used actuarial life tables to calculate a person's death date. However, as per a Bloomberg report, the Death Clock app's developer highlighted that the AI used was trained on a dataset of more than 1,200 life expectancy studies with approximately 53 million participants. Brent Franson, the developer, also told the publication that the AI seeks data from the user about diet, exercise, stress levels, and sleep to make the final prediction. As per Franson, this results in a more accurate death day prediction compared to traditional methods that use life tables. While downloading the app and getting a prediction is free of cost, users can also pay $40 (roughly Rs. 3,400) to get a personalised recommendation to improve certain habits to increase life expectancy and delay the impending doom. The annual subscription fee also adds a clock that counts down to the user's predicted death. Notably, the developers did not share details about the AI model used to predict this information or highlight the architecture it is based on, which raises some concerns about its reliability. Still, this app can be a useful tool for those who want to understand how certain behaviour can put their bodies at a higher risk of dying and ways to change them.

Death Clock app predicts the date of your death

A new app called Death Clock predicts the date of its users' deaths and offers tips on how to push that date back. TechCrunch wrote about an iPod Death Clock app way back in 2006 -- but developer Brett Franson told Bloomberg that with an AI trained on more than 1,200 life expectancy studies, his app offers a "pretty significant" improvement on standard life tables. Naturally, I had to try it myself. The questionnaire started with basics like age, gender, and ethnicity, but also included more detailed questions about family history, mental health, and chronic conditions. Finally, it predicted that I'll die on February 28, 2074, at the ripe old age of 90 ... but with better habits, I might live to 103. For an annual subscription fee of $40, Death Clock will both suggest ways to improve my habits and show a clock counting down to my estimated death. That death date is designed to be shared online, but it also has practical implications. As financial planner Ryan Zabrowski told Bloomberg, "A huge concern for elderly people, our retirees, is outliving their money," so accurate mortality estimates could help.