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.
AI reaper
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