A startup estimates it will soon be possible to create autonomous avatars of deceased people
Not without ethical issues, keeping in touch with loved ones after death has become the promise of several startups harnessing the power of artificial intelligence.
Ryu Sung-yoon is sitting in front of a microphone and a giant screen that shows her husband, who died several months ago.
“Love, it’s me,” a man on screen tells her in a video demo. She tearfully answered him and a sort of conversation began.
Photo: AFP
When the 76-year-old South Korean man learned that Lee Byung-wal had terminal cancer, he asked startup DeepBrain AI to create a digital replica using hours of video.
DeepBrain AI head of development, Joseph Murphy, said the Rememory program “does not create new content,” such as sentences that the deceased never said, or at least did not write and verify while alive. said.
“We’ll call it the niche part of our business. It’s not a growth area for us,” he warned.
The idea is the same at StoryFile, which uses 92-year-old Star Trek actor William Shatner to market the site.
“Our approach is to capture the greatness of the individual and use AI tools,” says StoryFile boss Stephen Smith. The company says his Life service has thousands of users.
Entrepreneur Pratik Desai months ago suggested people save audio and video of “parents, elders and loved ones”, and by “the end of this year” will be able to create autonomous avatars. It was expected to be deaf and controversial. A deceased person, he said he was working on a project for this purpose.
The message posted on Twitter caused a storm, and within days he even denied being a “ghoul.”
“This is a very personal topic and I sincerely apologize for hurting people,” he said.
“It’s a very good ethical area and we’re taking it very seriously,” Smith said.
Eugenia Kuda, a Russian engineer who moved to California after losing her best friend in a car accident in 2015, created a “chatbot” named Roman, just like her dead friend, to help people he loved. I typed thousands of text messages sent to. .
Two years later, Kyuda launched Replika, the most sophisticated, personalized conversational robot on the market.
But despite Rome’s precedent, Replicaa “is not a platform made to recreate lost loved ones,” the spokesperson said.
“Philosophical”
London-based Somnium Space wants to create virtual clones of users while they are still alive, allowing them to exist in parallel worlds after their death.
“It’s not for everyone,” CEO Artur Shikhov admitted in a video posted on YouTube about his product, Live Forever, which he plans to launch at the end of the year.
“Would you like to meet your grandfather who works in AI?” But those who want it will be able to do it,” he added.
Thanks to generative AI, we have technology that allows avatars of deceased loved ones to say words they didn’t say when they were alive.
“I think these are philosophical challenges, not technical ones,” said DeepBrainAI’s Murphy.
“I’d say it’s not going to cross the line at this point, but who knows what the future holds,” he added.
“I think it’s helpful to interact with an AI version of a human to close the mind, especially in situations where grief is complicated by abuse or trauma,” says Candy Kang of Baylor University, who is currently researching the subject. says the professor. Korea.
Mari Diaz, a professor of medical psychology at the University of Johnson and Wales, asked many bereaved patients about virtual contact with loved ones.
“The most common answer is ‘I don’t trust AI’. ‘I’m afraid I’ll say something unacceptable.’ They think they can’t control their avatar’s actions. I get the impression that
Comments are moderated. Please keep your comments relevant to the article. Speech containing profanity, obscenity, personal attacks of any kind, or promotion will be removed and users will be banned. The final decision is at the discretion of The Taipei Times.
