Danish AI predicts your death with 78% accuracy: innovation or ethical nightmare?

The News That Will Frustrate You: Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark have just created “Life2vec,” an algorithm that predicts whether you’ll die within the next 4 years with a chilling accuracy of 78%.

How This “Destiny Calculator” Works

This AI isn’t a conventional model. It uses the same technology behind ChatGPT (language transformers) but applied to human lives. As Sune Lehmann, the lead author of the study, explained:

“We represent each life as a sequence of events: hospital admissions, profession, medical history, residence, job changes… Just like words form sentences, events in our lives follow predictable patterns.”

The team trained Life2vec with data from more than 6 million Danes (2008-2020), analyzing every aspect of their existence. The result: it could identify who was likely to die in 2020 with a 78% success rate. It’s not magic; it’s statistics on steroids.

The Uncomfortable Side: Ethics + Privacy + Psychology

Now comes the murky part. What happens when you can predict someone’s death? Topics no one wants to address:

• Privacy: Who has access to this data? The government? Insurance companies?
• Discrimination: Will you be denied a loan because the AI says you’ll die soon?
• Psychological Impact: How would you feel knowing a machine predicts your end?
• Consent: Are people truly okay with their lives being analyzed this way?

The Big Question

Yes, it’s an impressive breakthrough in AI. But while we celebrate the algorithm’s accuracy, society needs to establish clear ethical boundaries. Innovation without regulation is just a ticking time bomb.

Do we want AI to help us live better, or just tell us when we’re going to die?