How Normal Am I: What It Is, and a Measured Alternative

How Normal Am I is an interactive documentary that lets an algorithm judge your face to show how such systems work, and it collects no personal data. Our free scan shares that privacy and adds a published, versioned formula.

What How Normal Am I Does

How Normal Am I is an interactive documentary about algorithmic judgment, created by artist Tijmen Schep as part of the European Union's Sherpa research program and hosted at hownormalami.eu. Its homepage states the premise in one line: experience how artificial intelligence judges your face. You grant camera access, the experience runs in your browser, and the site is explicit that no personal data is collected. The project's purpose is critical, and it earns it: the point is to make you feel what it is like to be scored by a machine, so you understand what such systems do when they are pointed at people. That is a real contribution, and this page recommends the experience rather than competing with it. What the documentary is not, and does not claim to be, is an instrument: the judging is the exhibit, not the product.

What We Do Differently

  • The same privacy, kept: the documentary collects no personal data, and neither do we. Our free scan runs its full measurement in your browser and the photo never leaves your device. On this one point the two sites agree completely, and we think that agreement is worth noticing.
  • A formula instead of a demonstration: the documentary shows you that algorithms judge. The free AI attractiveness test shows you the judgment itself, as a number built from 478 measured landmarks, with the formula published and each component's weight disclosed.
  • Repeatable, on purpose: a measurement is only useful if the same face under the same conditions returns the same number. Our score is versioned so a re-scan is comparable, and the rate my face scan rates a specific photo the same way every time.

Side by Side

The two projects answer different questions, and the table says so plainly rather than forcing a winner. It states only what each site publishes about itself, checked on the date below.

FactorHow Normal Am IUs
What it isAn interactive documentary about face-judging algorithms, made as an EU-supported art projectA measurement instrument with a published formula
Data handlingCamera runs in the browser; no personal data is collected, per its own termsOn-device scan; photos never leave your browser
PriceFree to experienceThe scan is free; one optional written report, $19 once
What you take awayAn understanding of how judgment algorithms treat a faceA repeatable score with each component's weight shown
Browser supportOn iPhone and iPad, Safari only, per its own noteAny modern browser, by camera or photo upload

Checked against hownormalami.eu on September 2, 2026. The project's own pages remain the current source for how it works.

Watch the Documentary, Then Check the Number

The honest relationship between these two sites is sequence, not rivalry. The documentary teaches the right suspicion: an algorithm judging a face is a system someone built, with choices inside it. We agree, and our answer to that suspicion is disclosure. Every choice inside our score is published: which 478 landmarks are read, which seven components are computed from them, and what weight each carries. A judgment you can audit is still a judgment, and our own methodology page lists what a score cannot know about a person. Watch his exhibit to understand the machine. Read our formula to check one.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is How Normal Am I?

How Normal Am I is an interactive documentary by artist Tijmen Schep, made within the European Union's Sherpa research program, that lets a face-judging algorithm score you to show how such systems work. It runs in the browser and states that it collects no personal data.

Is How Normal Am I safe to use?

Its own terms state that camera access is necessary and that no personal data is collected, which is the strongest privacy claim a face tool can make. We cannot audit its code, but the claim itself is published plainly on its homepage.

Is there a face rating test like How Normal Am I?

The closest match with the same privacy model is the free AI attractiveness test, which runs entirely in your browser with nothing uploaded. The difference is intent: the documentary demonstrates algorithmic judgment, while our scan publishes the formula and returns a repeatable score.

Sources

Every claim above, traceable

  1. How Normal Am I, homepage and terms: project description, camera and data statements, Safari note (checked September 2, 2026)

It measures geometry, not worth. The number tells you where you start. It never tells you what you are.

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