A New Project From Lulu Says That I’m 89 Percent Dude

What's New with Lulu from Alexandra Chong

If you get tired of asking Microsoft how old you look, here’s a variant from startup Lulu — a site that answers the question, “How Dude Do I Look?”

Lulu launched the project last week. CEO Alexandra Chong said it was hacked together pretty quickly as an “homage” to Microsoft’s How Old project. Chong talked to TechCrunch TV about the project at Disrupt NY, explaining that it’s meant to “show off” the technology that Lulu has built around gender detection and facial recognition. (The company is best known for its app where girls — and girls only — review guys.)

It’s a fun experiment, and hey, I was perfectly satisfied with my 89 percent score. But I also ended up fumbling around a less-funny point — that not everyone approaches gender in such a clear-cut way. Is it a good thing to claim, even jokingly, that you can measure masculinity based on a photo? What about transgender users?

“Everything at Lulu’s been a work-in-progress,” Chong responded. “We tackle things one-by-one, so I think around the areas of gender identification, it’s something that we want to start to see: How will Lulu evolve into a product that will also [accommodate] gay men and gay women? It’s definitely on our roadmap.”

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