Microsoft has been granted a patent for technology that would “reanimate” the dead by re-creating them via social media posts, videos and private messages that could even be downloaded into a 3D lifelike model of the deceased.
Just what you’ve always wanted right, to bring back your loved ones as a chatbot.
“The tech giant has raised the possibility of creating an AI-based chatbot that would be built upon the profile of a person, which includes their “images, voice data, social media posts, electronic messages,” – Summit News[1]
The chatbot could be a historical figure, a celebrity, a friend or relative or even a copy of “the user creating/training the chat bot.”, according to the patent.
For Black Mirror fans, this concept will be undoubtedly far too familiar. The episode “Be Right Back” tells a very similar story about the grief of loosing a loved one. In the episode Martha looses her loved one Ash in a car accident. Martha later learns of a technology that can imitate a deceased person based on their online history.
We see this time and time again, reality mirroring fiction.
“It’s still a shadow of a person — but that wasn’t possible just a year ago, and in the very close future we will be able to do a lot more,” – The Independent[2]
What do you think about this? Leave your comments below.
Sources: