The Digital Resurrection of the Dead By Brian Simpson
There is a lot of debate about the digital resurrection of the dead, using computer technology to make those dead, say and perform as if they still lived.
https://www.wired.com/story/ethics-reviving-dead-with-tech/
“It was recently revealed that in 2017 Microsoft patented a chatbot that, if built, would digitally resurrect the dead. Using AI and machine learning, the proposed chatbot would bring our digital persona back to life for our family and friends to talk to. When pressed on the technology, Microsoft representatives admitted that the chatbot was “disturbing” and that there were currently no plans to put it into production.
Still, it appears that the technical tools and personal data are in place to make digital reincarnations possible. AI chatbots have already passed the “Turing Test”, which means they’ve fooled other humans into thinking they’re human, too. Meanwhile, most people in the modern world now leave behind enough data to teach AI programs about our conversational idiosyncrasies. Convincing digital doubles may be just around the corner.
But there are currently no laws governing digital reincarnation. Your right to data privacy after your death is far from set in stone, and there is currently no way for you to opt-out of being digitally resurrected. This legal ambiguity leaves room for private companies to make chatbots out of your data after you’re dead.
Our research has looked at the surprisingly complex legal question of what happens to your data after you die. At present, and in the absence of specific legislation, it’s unclear
Microsoft’s chatbot would use your electronic messages to create a digital reincarnation in your likeness after you pass away. Such a chatbot would use machine learning to respond to text messages just as you would have when you were alive. If you happen to leave behind rich voice data, that too could be used to create your vocal likeness – someone your relatives could speak with, through a phone or a humanoid robot.
Microsoft isn’t the only company to have shown an interest in digital resurrection. The AI company Eternime has built an AI-enabled chatbot that harvests information – including geolocation, motion, activity, photos, and Facebook data – which lets users create an avatar of themselves to live on after they die. It may be only a matter of time until families have the choice to reanimate dead relatives using AI technologies such as Eternime’s.
The obvious problems here is that what is produced will be false information, as the response cannot in nay way represent the response of the dad person who does not exist. So, it is a false representation. Thus, say, a new John Wayne movie, could be delightful, but is no more real than using a living actor to impersonate him, and is thus intrinsically a misrepresentation. And, there could well be sinister applications made of this technology by criminals, aiming for fraud.
It is just one more problem produced by the seductive technologies which are forced upon us by modernity.
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