The popularity of FaceApp in the past few weeks has shot up beyond their creator’s imagination.

Nobody, however, thought that the technology running behind the app could be used to reunite a missing person, until last week. Artificial Technology (AI) used to power the app has helped a Chinese man reunite with his family.

Yu Weifeng, 21, who was kidnapped 18 years ago was reunited with his family on July 19 after police were able to use the Artificial Intelligence technology to predict what he might look like as a grown-up.

The cops took the help of software created by Chinese tech and internet services giant Tencent AI Lab to get an idea of what Wiefeng might look like after so many years. Tencent Lab is also behind the famous arcade shooting game – PubG.

The investigators in Shenzhen’s Futian District relied on software which took two months to sort through nearly 100 candidates on a database, before singling out Weifeng. Weifeng is currently a student in the provincial capital Guangzhou, reported Metro.co.uk.

When the investigators met Weifeng he refused to believe that he was kidnapped as a child. However, after the DNA match, he was convinced.

Weifeng went missing on 6th May 2001 while playing near a construction site where his father was working.

His foster parents gave Weifeng a family name- Li. The reunion of the family was quite emotional. Weifeng’s biological father thanked Weifeng’s adoptive father and said that Weifeng will have two dads.

Cops have informed that they are still investigating the kidnapping, with no arrests made so far.

After the police successfully found Weifeng with the help of AI, the search effort for Madeleine McCann who went missing from Praia da Luz in 2007 has bolstered. She was kidnapped when she was three-years-old. British tourists are now asked to carry her posters on their holidays to find her.

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