Developing technologies that challenge the status quo is what we do best here at Yoti. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for good, our new age estimation technology is set to shake up the way people prove their age online and in person. We’re proud of all of the work that’s gone into making it easy to use, accurate and fair for everyone, no matter your age or ethnicity, so we’ve released a white paper for people that want to know more.
Making it faster and safer to prove your age
Our facial age estimation is a secure age-checking service that accurately estimates a person’s age by looking at their face. Until now, people have had to show ID documents to prove their age, a process that’s outdated and easily spoofed with high quality fake IDs available online for much less than the official documents that they replicate. Others can’t afford an ID document, which prevents them from accessing certain goods and services, such as obtaining medicine or placing their vote.
Our facial recognition applications are designed to make life easier for everyone. We believe it is crucial to have a transparent approach when launching new technology that uses facial recognition. With that in mind, we’ve signed the Safe Face Pledge, which encourages companies using AI to ensure that facial recognition technology is not misused – and released a new white paper that explains how we use AI for good with our facial age estimation.
Key takeouts from the report: Yoti’s facial age estimation ‘always forgets a face’
Our age estimation technology has been designed with data privacy and security at its core. It does not require individuals to register in advance, nor to provide any documentary evidence of their identity. It neither retains any information about individuals nor any images of them. It simply estimates their age.
The algorithm can accurately estimate the age of millions of people in a private and secure way. It is a scalable solution which is quicker and more accurate than manual ID checks, and can be used in the provision of any age-restricted goods and services, both online and in person.
A robust solution built for the real world
In the last 30 days our facial age estimation has worked with a live streaming chat room service to check the age of over five million individuals to flag any accounts where the person appears to have stated a significantly false age; this task is important for safeguarding young people and would be prohibitively expensive to do manually each day.
Our age estimation tech will go live in supermarkets in Q1 2019 to let people purchase an age-restricted good at self-checkout. Shortly after, our facial age estimation will be available as an option to verify the ages of people visiting UK adult content sites, which will be mandatory as a result of the Digital Economy Act. As regulators review the accuracy of this innovative approach, opportunities will open up globally for the sale and/or collection of age-restricted goods through automated vending and dispensing machines.
For the first time technology will be able to estimate someone’s age with a high degree of accuracy, and give people the chance to verify their age in a private and secure way.
You can read the white paper here.