<\/p>\n
AI now allows us to build and communicate with digital avatars of the dead. These so-called \u2018deadbots\u2019, \u2018ghostbots\u2019, \u2018postmortem avatars\u2019 or \u2018griefbots\u2019 may provide comfort to some (including those doing legacy planning), but they raise difficult ethical questions.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
In March, SenseTime Group founder Tang Xiao\u2019ou used AI to deliver a \u2018live\u2019 speech\u2014four months after his death. Korean firm DeepBrain AI\u2019s \u2018Re;memory service\u2019 lets our dead departed parents \u201clive” in the cloud, and talk to relatives. It cites the film Coco: \u201cWhen there is no one left in the living world who remembers you, you disappear from this world.” MIT Media Lab\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Not necessarily. We use photo albums to preserve memories of dead friend and family\u2014deadbots 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\u2019s avatar sharing recipes; a renowned surgeon\u2019s 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\u2019s avatar for comfort and guidance.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s founder, Zhang Zewei, told Forbes that \u201ccustomized griefbots can cost between 50,000 and 100,000 yuan ($6,860 to $13,710)”.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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\u2019s essence\u2014personality, knowledge and mannerisms, their ability to learn, grow and make nuanced decisions.<\/p>\n
Deadbots, especially those built without consent, raise serious ethical concerns. Think about the distress caused to Robin Williams\u2019s daughter Zelda by online deepfake videos of her late father. Ethicists from Cambridge\u2019s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence caution that even those who take initial comfort from a \u2018deadbot\u2019 may eventually get drained by daily interactions. Companies could use them to \u201cstalk” the living with spams. They could be exploited for personal gain, impacting inheritance. (edited)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AI now allows us to build and communicate with digital avatars of the dead. These so-called \u2018deadbots\u2019, \u2018ghostbots\u2019, \u2018postmortem avatars\u2019 or \u2018griefbots\u2019 may provide comfort to some (including those doing legacy planning), but they raise difficult ethical questions. Who is building these deadbots? In March, SenseTime Group founder Tang Xiao\u2019ou used AI to deliver a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[440,284,263,262,8335,23148,23147,260,259,258,265,202,261,264],"class_list":["post-335466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metaverse","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-axie-infinity","tag-axs","tag-chatbots","tag-coco","tag-deadbots","tag-decentraland","tag-facebook","tag-game","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-nft","tag-sandbox","tag-vr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335466"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335473,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335466\/revisions\/335473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}