Advances in artificial intelligence are so rapid that reality is overtaking fiction at breakneck speed. Beyond the systems for generating images or texts, we can already create a virtual avatar for… after our death. A digital immortality which is not without asking real substantive questions.
Whether we want it or not, artificial intelligence is taking more place in our lives. You might as well get used to it right away, it’s not about to stop. It is mainly used for improve our daily lives (automation of tasks) or help us design a rendering, like Midjourney for images. But it doesn’t stop there: AI also wants to support your loved ones after your death. As you will have understood, we are entering the domain of digital immortality. Long confined to the pages of novels and cinema screens, it is already a reality.
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The question is not new. The flow of personal data passing through the Web has forced some actors to take action very early. For example, Facebook has offered for many years the transformation of a deceased person’s account into a memorial page, offering a virtual place of meditation for loved ones. However, it remains limited to the consultation of photos, videos and publications. Today, supported by AI that is advancing by leaps and bounds, the notion of (digital) life after death takes on a dimension that is both fascinating and frightening.
Become immortal with artificial intelligence
Just dig a little on the Play Store or the App Store to find applications of a new kind. HereAfter AI allows you to record anecdotes, memories, but also bits of sentences that will be used by artificial intelligence to make you more “realistic”. Result: a chatbot, à la Google Bard, but audio, with which you can interact. In the presentation animation, we see a young boy asking his deceased grandfather to tell him something about his life. In fact, the reproduction of the voice of the deceased is convincing and the illusion hits the mark…until a particular question make the application say that it did not understand and that it is necessary to rephrase or change the subject.
Even more stunning, the Korean company Deepbrain AI offers the service re;memory. For $10,000, you can be filmed in a dedicated studio, record phrases, and create a virtual avatar for loved ones to visit (for an additional fee). AI boosted, your virtual double can to a lesser extent respond to his interlocutors. By the firm’s own admission, however, re;memory does not pretend to reproduce your personality in all its complexity. Everything will depend on the initial registrations. If you want your digital replica to be very cheerful, you will have to read a lot of texts with a very cheerful voice.
The digital afterlife raises issues of safety and grief management
Since we are basically talking about personal data, what about their security? Admittedly, the institutions want to regulate artificial intelligence, but this is a completely new field. Legal protections exist… for the living. Imagine a hacker getting hold of your post-mortem avatar and using it for malicious activity. Or for reveal family secrets found in your emails and private documents. The blur is total and in the meantime, companies grant themselves the right to use all your data to train their AI.
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Less pragmatic, the question of the management of mourning in a society where talking with the deceased becomes a reality is also central. What if it turned into an “unhealthy obsession”, asks Joanna Bryson, Professor of Ethics and Technology at the Hertie School in Berlin. The possibility of interacting with a loved one who has disappeared in an almost unlimited way radically changes our relationship to death. Especially since we can already assume an increasingly convincing realism. Dismissing all fatalism, she hopes above all that these new ways of being confronted with death will push us to place more emphasis on real-world relationships.
Source: Engadget