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.
