John Lewis trials facial age estimation technology for online knife sales

InternetRetailing
Image © John Lewis Partnership

Department store John Lewis has become the first UK retailer to introduce AI-powered age checks for kitchen knife ecommerce sales, following a partnership with technology firm Yoti.

Facial age estimation will be added at the checkout, with those deemed to be under 18 unable to complete the transaction. Home delivery will then be completed by Royal Mail or DPD, who John Lewis stressed are experienced at handling parcels containing products of this nature. They will also complete an age check on the doorstep with a photographic ID.

“We know our customers are keen for a greater selection of kitchen and cutlery knives, and we’re now offering them an extended range online, without compromising on safety or compliance. We take safety incredibly seriously, and to meet government guidelines, we’re partnering with Yoti to ensure that only those aged 18+ can purchase these items,” the retailer said in a statement.

According to the collaboration, the technology is highly accurate – with 99.91% of 13-17 year olds correctly estimated as under 25. 

Yoti added that the facial age estimation tool is not facial recognition; it estimates a person’s age without identifying them. 

The technology can’t estimate someone’s age without an image. But as soon as their age is estimated, the image is permanently deleted. The image is not shared, stored or used for anything other purpose. “This is not about collecting and building a database of faces,” it stressed.

The technology estimates age by looking at facial features in an image. To the technology, the image is simply a pattern of pixels, and the pixels are numbers. The facial age estimation technology has been trained to spot patterns in numbers, so it learns ‘this pattern is what 18-year-olds usually look like’. But it is not uniquely identifying an individual customer.

Furthermore, Yoti has developed anti-spoofing liveness technology to prevent children from holding up a photo of an adult to the camera, showing an adult’s image on a screen, or wearing a mask in front of the camera.

John Lewis is currently not planning on extending this offering to Waitrose.


Stay informed
Our editor carefully curates two newsletters a week filled with up-to-date news, analysis and research, click here to subscribe to the FREE newsletter sent straight to your inbox and why not follow us on LinkedIn to receive the latest updates on our research and analysis
.

Read More

Register for Newsletter

Created with Sketch.

Receive 3 newsletters per week

Created with Sketch.

Gain access to all Top500 research

Created with Sketch.

Personalise your experience on IR.net