On social media, reports began to circulate that the Moscow technology company NtechLab developed an AI strategy capable of identifying faces in a mask, or even identifying individuals after six decades – solely based on a childhood photo. Sounds like discipline fiction? Or is it a real threat? Checking.
Truth and story of NtechLab Technology
NtechLab is 1 of the most recognizable facial designation companies. Their flagship technology – FindFace – not only in Russia but worldwide. Tests of the American NIST Institute indicated that NtechLab algorithms are among the most accurate in the world.
Russian company provides solutions for public safety systems, especially in Moscow, where urban monitoring and strategy Face Pay The subway is based on her technologies. AI analyses facial features, detects the presence of masks, evaluates age and emotion. In any implementations, the strategy can admit a individual even erstwhile part of the face – e.g. nose and mouth – is covered. That in itself raises questions about privacy. But facial recognition after a fewer decades? That's a different scale of the challenge.
From kid photograph to identification
The claim that NtechLab can identify an adult man based on a childhood photo, There is presently no confirmation in reliable sources. No technological publication, manufacture study or reputable average – specified as BBC, Reuters is The fresh York Times – does not indicate that the company truly has specified technology.
Face designation after decades is 1 of the biggest unresolved problems in the field of biometry. For this, algorithms would request to be able to realistically foretell how face changes over decades – taking into account not only genetic conditions, but besides lifestyles, diseases, vulnerability to the sun, growth or weight loss. Even algorithms utilized by peculiar services are based on simplified simulations and indirect photographs – not on direct matching of the child's face to an adult.
Systems specified as FaceAge whether any GAN networks can estimation age or make a probable simulation of how individual will look in a fewer decades. But it's inactive is not a tool for certain identity recognition after 60 years.
What do the sources say?
In fresh reports (July 2025) NtechLab tests facial designation systems at Russian airports. The goal is to analyse real-time monitoring, integrate with databases and detect suspicious behavior. However, it is not known whether the technology includes analysis of people in masks or modeling the aging process.
It is likely that sensational reports come from unverified media messages, misinterpreted technological presentations or targeted PR. In a time of disinformation – besides technological – specified stories spread rapidly.
Technology and privacy boundary
Just as crucial as the system's ability is its ethics. NtechLab is on EU and US sanction lists. The company is accused of cooperating with Russian services and supporting the state surveillance strategy of citizens, including political opponents and protesters. Human rights organisations – specified as Roskomsvoboda – have been informing for years that this technology is getting out of democratic control.
The ability to identify faces after decades – if always it becomes real – may be a revolution in superstition and security. But it may as well become a tool of mass control in the hands of authoritarian regimes.
Modern AI Mythology
Today, there is no evidence that NtechLab can identify a man after 60 years based on a kid photo. There is besides no clear data that effectively identifies the faces obscured in a full manner. This technology is undoubtedly advanced – but any of its possibilities belong to the sphere digital myths than technological reality.
Will that change? Probably. But before we believe in any information about “super-AI from Moscow”, it is worth asking: who distributes it, why – and whether the planet is truly ready for it.
DF, thefad.pl / Source: media
