By Nermeen Nabil Khear 
I’ll download any app I get an ad for—this fact has been established over and over again. Because the algorithm knows me well, that usually means I am served up advertisements for apps and services that revolve around fashion and beauty. Yet I also have a hidden introspective side, though, again, apparently not hidden from the algorithm: Over the weekend, I was encouraged to download something called Death Clock AI. This app claimed it could guess when I’ll die based on my data, correlated to some scientific studies. How could I say no to that?
Now, I do not believe I actually will die on Friday, June 30, 2079, as the app predicted, nor do I really think an app is the best answer to charting my healthiest path forward in life. While the app did give me suggestions for improving my overall health, that’s no substitute for discussing things with my doctor. Still, the app did make me think a little bit deeper about how I’m living, which I think makes it potentially valuable. And it’s also just kinda neat.
What is Death Clock AI?
When you first open the app (available on iOS or Google Play), you’re greeted by a screen that says you can “live longer, better,” then asked to tap a button that says, “See my death date.” Before you get that, you’ll need to more than 30 questions about your habits and health. It will then crunch those numbers and deliver the news.
The app claims to be “backed by science, powered by AI,” and pulls its information from 1,217 studies that involved a combined population of 53 million participants. While the app does ask you about your age and some background questions, though, your stats may not match up with those of the participants. And the app does nothing to account for your own family and health history, or other important factors like risks you face at work or social factors that may affect your health.
Credit: Lindsey Ellefson
Still, with each question it asks—like “How often do you include fruits and veggies in your meals?”—you are given the opportunity to explore the research it is based on. Tapping on the research button for that particular question opens a pop-up that notes, “Research from 16 studies involving over 833,000 participants show that each additional daily serving of fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of death from all causes by 5%, with benefits peaking at five servings per day.”
Some questions may be harder to answer. While you can pretty reliably indicate how often you do cardio in a week or the number of hours you spend sitting each day, other things—like how often you “experience significant stress in your daily life”—are more subjective. On the other end of the spectrum, there are specific questions you may not know the answer to offhand, like about your typical blood pressure reading or your LDL cholesterol level. I certainly don’t know my fasting glucose level off the top of my head, so I had to answer “I don’t know” a few times; this will affect your overall results.
Once Death Clock AI calculates your “death date” based on your answers, it also provides a “better” (that is, farther in the future) date that you can aim for. You’ll also be informed you’ll get to use the service for free for three days, at which point you’ll be charged the $40 annual fee. If you choose to pay for a year of service, you’ll get the opportunity to upload health documents and information like recent bloodwork. You can also sync your phone’s health data to the app and it will keep track of how much you sleep at night, as well as how many steps you take in a day. Your “death date” can fluctuate based on these inputs and, with a subscription, you’ll maintain access to the longevity plan Death Clock generates for you.
I can’t vouch for how worthwhile that is, because I didn’t use Death Clock AI over an extended period. But even a short-term trial gave me plenty to think about.
How Death Clock AI made me rethink my health
Again, even though the developers were smart to base their app on reputable studies, I don’t think you should take Death Clock AI’s predictions too seriously. Instead, I thought of it as an excuse to reconsider my own health—the same way I treat the data from my fitness trackers and smart scale. It should be considered a given that this data is never truly accurate, but even stopping to think about how often I eat fresh vegetables or how often I stand up on an average day was a minor wake-up call. The drama of getting my “death date” is more of an amusing bonus.
Credit: Lindsey Ellefson
Death Clock AI delivered me a “longevity plan” that includes recommended bloodwork and labs, supplements, screenings, and things to talk about with my doctor. If you’re someone who wants to dig in deeper on your health but isn’t sure where to start, this information could be helpful. For each item on the list, the app provides the steps you need to take to follow up on it, and it even notes whether it’s typically covered by insurance.
The final screen you see is a reminder that Death Clock AI “does not provide medical advice” and you should talk to a real doctor about any concerns you have about your health. That’s definitely true.
Privacy considerations
Maybe you’re worried about entering all your personal health information into a random app. Death Clock AI’s website notes that the developers, “seek to protect your personal data from unauthorized access,” but may also “create aggregated, de-identified or anonymized data from the Personal Data” they collect, to be used for analysis or enhancing the service. That’s actually the case for most apps, sure, but most apps aren’t asking you to reveal your private health data.
This isn’t a big deal for me, because I always assume there’s a risk with sharing any data, and I gave up being worried about it a long time ago. If you are more sensible, you should only input what you feel comfortable with putting out into the world. Using the paid tier, for instance, you can input recent bloodwork, but it isn’t required. Stick with the free version, which doesn’t require you to create an account, and feel free to skip any questions you find too sensitive.
Because again, this app provides useful jumping-off points for thinking deeper about your health, but you also don’t really need it at all. If typing your cholesterol level or smoking habits into a gimmicky app makes you feel weird, it’s best to just skip it and interrogate your habits some other way. But if you can get past any privacy concerns, and you are looking for a way to think more deeply about your health or need a framework for doing so, it’s a solid—if slightly silly—starting point.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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