Mint Primer: AI can make you immortal. What’s the problem?

Who is building these deadbots?

In March, SenseTime Group founder Tang Xiao’ou used AI to deliver a ‘live’ speech—four months after his death. Korean firm DeepBrain AI’s ‘Re;memory service’ lets our dead departed parents “live” in the cloud, and talk to relatives. It cites the film Coco: “When there is no one left in the living world who remembers you, you disappear from this world.” MIT Media Lab’s Augmented Eternity project focuses on creating digital avatars for dead CEOs, scientists, etc. HereAfter AI, MyHeritage, Super Brain, Storyfile, Silicon Intelligence, Eternime and Somnium Space also provide such services.

Isn’t this all a bit morbid?

Not necessarily. We use photo albums to preserve memories of dead friend and family—deadbots could provide comfort. Besides, some religions assure the living of a reunion after death. Avatars can maintain family histories, enhance historical education and aid legacy planning. There are endless possibilities: Students interacting with an Einstein avatar about relativity; a grandmother’s avatar sharing recipes; a renowned surgeon’s ghostbot guiding medical students, a life-like avatar of a dead pop singer performing at virtual concerts; a child seeking advice from a late parent’s avatar for comfort and guidance.

How much do avatars cost, and how big is the market?

The global chatbot market is forecast to grow to $15.5 billion by 2028 from $5.4 billion in 2023, says MarketsandMarkets. A voice avatar could cost $500- $15,000. But sophisticated ones could cost much more. China-based Super Brain’s founder, Zhang Zewei, told Forbes that “customized griefbots can cost between 50,000 and 100,000 yuan ($6,860 to $13,710)”.

Can AI truly capture a deceased’s essence?

Chatbots now use GenAI models, including large language models that train on text, photos, audio, video recordings and other data. HereAfter AI uses recorded interviews to create interactive avatars that reflect the person’s mannerisms and speech patterns. Eternime taps social media posts, emails, and wearable data to simulate personality traits. However, ghostbots cannot fully replicate a dead person’s essence—personality, knowledge and mannerisms, their ability to learn, grow and make nuanced decisions.

So, what’s there not to like about AI avatars?

Deadbots, especially those built without consent, raise serious ethical concerns. Think about the distress caused to Robin Williams’s daughter Zelda by online deepfake videos of her late father. Ethicists from Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence caution that even those who take initial comfort from a ‘deadbot’ may eventually get drained by daily interactions. Companies could use them to “stalk” the living with spams. They could be exploited for personal gain, impacting inheritance. (edited)

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz