L'Oreal, Alibaba announce AI mobile acne testing app

French personal care company L'Oreal and Chinese tech giant Alibaba announced the world's first mobile acne testing application powered by artificial intelligence at the Viva Technology conference held from May 16-18 in Paris.

The app, Effaclar Spotscan, developed by La Roche-Posay, a brand of L'Oreal, and Alibaba allows those that have acne but with limited access to dermatological support to conduct professional skin self-testing and provides them with personalized and scientific solutions.

The app uses AI technology to generate test reports based on three selfies uploaded to it. After testing, the app will provide users with personalized skin care suggestions based on the state of the skin.

It will also recommend the corresponding skin care product combinations and support the purchase of products online. If the app detects more severe skin problems, it can put the user in touch with a skin care expert for one-on-one consultations.

Kevin Chen, vice-president of L'Oreal China and also general manager of Active Cosmetics Division said, "The division's mission is to create a beautiful future through better health. Effaclar Spotscan is a true beauty tech innovation that is tailored to meet everyone's unmet health needs. Its precision of skin testing cannot be achieved without L'Oreal's a century-old history of scientific expertise and the professional guidance of hundreds of top dermatologists around the world."

"We have analyzed more than 6,000 images of consumers from various races, with different skin types and of varying levels of acne issues, and from different genders to ensure that there is enough basis for precise test," Chen added.

Alibaba's AI technologies provide Effaclar Spotscan with substantive support. Based on acne images collected and dermatologists' analysis results, AI scientists adopted deep learning technologies including object classification and detection to create a neural network model for acne testing that explains the linkage between visualized acne information and type of lesions, to generate a comprehensive testing result.

Wang Yeming, general manager of Alibaba Cloud EMEA, said, "Millions of consumers on Tmall and Taobao are plagued by acne. Through AI technology, they can now gain a better understanding of the state of their skin and choose the skin care solution that are right for them in an effective and convenient manner without even having to leave their homes."

Effaclar Spotscan will make its debut on the Tmall and Taobao mobile app in June. It will also be launched in other markets around the world through various other application platforms.