fbpx

AI is Trying to Resurrect the Dead

Photo by Daniel Korpai via Unsplash

AI is Trying to Resurrect the Dead

By Movieguide® Contributor

New documentaries are revealing how AI companies are creating digital replicas of the deceased to reconnect those grieving with the dead.

Documentaries ETERNAL YOU and MEETING YOU both highlight AI companies like Project December, Hereafter.ai and YOV as they connect the living with the dead in various ways.

Project December is the most basic of the three, offering users the ability to create a digital chatbot with the same personality as the person who has passed. Hereafter.ai takes it a step further, creating an avatar of the person’s body that also replicates their voice. Finally, YOV creates something even more realistic, allowing users to interact with an avatar of the deceased in a VR world.

“Chatbots can scan the dead’s social media profiles and texts, and then simulate the departed’s way of speaking to create new messages,” Mashable reports.

While those working in the space present the technology as a tool to be used by those in mourning, others wonder if bringing back the dead is going too far.

“You’re dealing with something much more profound in the human spirit,” said MIT sociologist Sherry Turkle. “Once something is constituted enough that you can project onto it, this life force. It’s our desire to animate the world, which is human, which is part of our beauty. But we have to worry about it, we have to keep it in check. Because I think it’s leading us down a dangerous path.”

Project December creator Jason Rohrer, however, believes concerns about the future use of the technology should not disqualify it from being created in the first place. While he acknowledges that it can be used in an unhealthy way, he believes it also has an appropriate place in society.

“I believe in personal responsibility,” Rohrer said. “I believe that consenting adults can use that technology however they want and they’re responsible for the results of whatever they’re doing. It’s not my job as the creator of the technology to prevent the technology from being released, because I’m afraid of what somebody might do with it.”

While the technology continues to be developed, some of its earliest users question the ethics of this emerging space.

“There’s a line between the world of the living and the world of the dead,” said Kim Jong-woo, the producer of MEETING YOU. “By line, I mean the fact that the dead can’t come back to life. But people saw the experience of crossing that line. After all, I created an experience in which the beloved seemed to have returned. Have I made some huge mistake? Have I broken the principle of humankind? I don’t know… maybe to some extent.”

One woman, Stephenie Oney, used the technology to “communicate” with her dead father.

“I feel that sometimes technology is wonderful, but I don’t want to play God,” said Patricia, the sister of Stephenie’s late father. “And I think that your father, Bill, is in heaven, peaceful. I don’t want his soul — or any part of him — to be mimicked by technology. I feel that sometimes we could go too far with technology. I would love to just remember him as a person that was wonderful.”

Movieguide® previously reported:

A recent study found that using artificial intelligence is becoming commonplace among U.S. adults.

A 2022 survey from Pew Research found that “a larger share of Americans say they are ‘more concerned than excited’ by the increased use of AI in daily life than say the opposite.”

However, despite limited enthusiasm for the tech a few years ago, Barna Group and Gloo found that “31 percent of U.S. adults say they use AI weekly or daily. Millennials have become especially frequent adopters, with 43 percent of them using AI at least weekly.”

Young adults are more likely to use AI compared to older adults.


Watch A SMILE AS BIG AS THE MOON
Quality: - Content: +3
Watch DOLITTLE
Quality: - Content: +1