AI Told Me How I’ll Age — It Wasn’t That Scary

Face the Future

With the rise of AI-driven tools transforming everything from photo editing to identity verification, it’s no surprise that face-aging apps are going viral yet again. CNET’s Bridget Carey decided to put some of the most popular ones—like FaceApp and Epik—to the test and see how the bots think she’ll look in a few decades. Her experience was a mix of entertainment, mild existential reflection, and technical curiosity. While the apps produced images that swung between eerily realistic and glossy fantasy, none were offensively aged or wildly inaccurate. For an industry often accused of bias or distortion, that’s a surprisingly neutral result.

The Beauty Bias in the Machine

Despite initial concerns around digital ageism or over-glamorization, Carey found many of the apps erred on the side of flattery. Even when showing wrinkles and gray hair, her AI-aged self looked dignified—think “silver-certified social media influencer.” Still, she raises valid questions about how algorithms define beauty in aging based on historical data. If most AI models are trained on idealized celebrity photos or filtered social media images, are they showing us a possible future—or just a culturally acceptable one? It’s a pressing issue as these filters become more mainstream across platforms and tech companies push AI further into personal identity spaces.