AI Lets People Chat With ‘Clones’ of Departed Loved Ones

An artificial intelligence (AI) that lets you communicate with a digital version of a deceased loved one.

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction. (In fact, it’s the basis for an episode of “Black Mirror.”) But as NPR reported Sunday (July 21), there’s a company in China that is making that scenario a reality.

It’s called Silicon Intelligence, part of a number of startups that created AI chatbots using someone’s voice and likeness. It’s been made possible by the rise of increasingly powerful chatbots and investments in computing power that allow companies to offer affordable digital “clones” of real people.

That’s helped Sun Kai, an executive with Silicon Intelligence, chat with a digital likeness of his mother, who died six years ago.

“I do not treat [the avatar] as a kind of digital person. I truly regard it as a mother,” said Sun, 47, who speaks with his mother’s avatar at least once weekly. “I feel that this might be the most perfect person to confide in, without exception.”

The report noted that the technology presents challenges. For example, the growing threat of AI-powered scams using deepfakes has led companies to require authorization from the person or their family if the person is dead before being cloned.

There are also ethical considerations, Michel Puech, a philosophy professor at the Sorbonne Université in Paris, told NPR.

“There is the danger of addiction, and [of] replacing real life. So if it works too well, that’s the danger,” he said. “Having too much consoling, too much satisfying experience of a dead person will apparently annihilate the experience, and the grief, of death.” But that is mostly an illusion, Puech added.

In other AI news, PYMNTS wrote last week about an “unexpected wrinkle” facing businesses: artificial intelligence that fuels individual brilliance may be flattening the creative landscape. That’s according to a recent University of Cambridge study that found that while AI can serve as a muse for individual creators, its widespread adoption may paradoxically cause a drop in overall creative output.

“What distinguishes today’s AI, particularly generative AI, is its dual role in not only boosting efficiency but also fostering creativity,” Sarah Hoffman, AI evangelist at AlphaSense, told PYMNTS. “This duality is at the heart of the creative conundrum facing industries from advertising to product design.”

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