Several start-ups are working on digital images of people that can be talked to after they die. This is reported by the magazine MIT Technology Review in its current issue 1/2023 (can now be ordered from the heise shop or is available in stores). These digital replicas are intended to give comfort to the bereaved and to create closeness to the deceased. They are made possible by advances in artificial intelligence.
The Californian start-up HereAfter AI has developed a voicebot based on interviews with the people to be immortalized. The interviews are again conducted by a bot. That’s why it’s about, among other things, youth memories or personal convictions. Your loved ones can add their own questions to make the survey more personal. The result is an Alexa app that you can use to have a conversation with an Amazon Echo device. However, the selection of topics is limited to what came up in the interviews.
Programmed avatar to give comfort
Five-year-old start-up StoryFile promises to take things to the next level – with video instead of just voice. You can choose from hundreds of questions to ask a person. The answers can be recorded with any device that has a camera and microphone, although the better the quality of the recording, the better the result. From the uploaded files, the company builds an avatar that you can talk to. However, he too can only answer the questions for which he was programmed.
Energy consumption has to go down. In the new issue we present some approaches to the energy transition and technical increases in efficiency. The new issue is available from December 22nd. in stores and from 21.12. easy to order in the heise shop. Highlights from the magazine:
StoryFile CEO Stephen Smith says his mother “attended” her own funeral: “At the end she said, ‘That’s it from me then… goodbye!’ and everyone burst into tears.” Her digital participation was well received by family and friends. And, most importantly, it comforts him that he was able to capture something of his mother on camera before she died.
HereAfter and StoryFile aim to preserve a person’s life story. However, they cannot react to the respective interlocutor. Anyone can talk to them and they always answer the same.
Caring for his virtual persona after death
You, Only Virtual wants to go further and create a personalized bot. The first version is scheduled to launch in early 2023 and will allow people to create their own bot by uploading a person’s text messages, emails, and phone calls. The company is currently building a communication platform that will allow customers to message and talk to their loved ones while they are still alive. In this way, all data is automatically available after death. The bespoke virtual persona speaks to the bereaved in the individual style of living.
Creating a digital image of an individual without their input raises complex ethical questions about privacy. While some may argue that consent is less important when someone is dead. But shouldn’t the interlocutors who were involved in generating the data also have a say?
And what if the digitally cloned person isn’t actually dead? There’s little stopping people from using mourning technology to create virtual versions of living people without their consent — say, an ex-partner. The mourning technology service providers promise to erase an individual’s data if they request it. However, you are not obliged to check in advance whether people have given their consent or even died. There is no law against creating avatars of other people.
Read MIT Technology Review here:
(hrm)