Microsoft has recently launched a free Windows app that uses machine learning to guess the facial expression you’re making when imitating an emoji. Called Emoji8, the app gives you a score for how well you recreate the emoji, and it’s mostly meant to show off the capabilities of this brand of artificial intelligence in an accessible way.
The app serves up an emoji for you to mimic, analyzes the video feed from your computer’s webcam, then tells you your percentage of accuracy. Then, oddly, it gives you the option of creating a gif with some of your “craziest facial expressions” to share on Twitter. On Microsoft’s end, Emoji8 is supposed to show how quick and flexible its machine learning prowess is. From a user end, it’s a bit weird to show off how you 90 percent matched a crying emoji to your friends.
