BERLIN (AP) — When Michael Bommer discovered he had terminal colon cancer, he spent a lot of time with his wife, Anett, talking about what would happen after his death.
She told him that one of the things she would miss most would be being able to ask him questions whenever she wanted, because he is very cultured and always shares his wisdom, Bommer recalled during a recent interview with The Associated Press at his home in a leafy Berlin suburb.
That conversation gave Bommer an idea: recreate his voice using artificial intelligence so that it would last after his death.
The 61-year-old entrepreneur partnered with his friend in the United States, Robert LoCascio, CEO of Eternos: an AI-generated legacy platform. Within two months, they built “a full, interactive AI version” of Bommer, the first such client for the company.
Eternos, which got its name from the Italian and Latin word for “eternal,” says its technology will allow Bommer’s family to “interact with his life experiences and points of view.” It is among several companies that have emerged in recent years in what has become a growing space for grief-related AI technology.
One of the best-known startups in this area, California-based StoryFile, allows people to interact with pre-recorded videos and uses its algorithms to detect the most relevant answers to questions asked by users. Another company, called HereAfter AI, offers similar interactions through a “Life Story Avatar” that users can create by answering questions or sharing their own personal stories.
There is also “Project December,” a chatbot that asks users to fill out a questionnaire with key data about a person and their traits. Subsequently, $10 is paid to simulate a text conversation with the created character. Another company, Seance AI, offers fictitious seances for free. Additional features, such as AI-generated voice recreations of your loved ones, are available for a $10 fee.
While some have embraced this technology as a way to deal with grief, others are uncomfortable with companies using artificial intelligence to try to maintain interactions with those who have died. Others worry that it could make the grieving process more difficult because there is no closure.
Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basinska, a researcher at the Center for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, who co-authored a study on the topic, said very little is known about the possible short- and long-term consequences of using digital simulations. for the dead on a large scale. For now, it remains “a vast techno-cultural experiment.”
“What truly sets this era apart, and is even unprecedented in the long history of humanity’s quest for immortality, is that, for the first time, processes of care for the dead and practices of immortalization are fully integrated.” in the capitalist market,” Nowaczyk-Basinska said.
Bommer, who has only a few weeks left to live, rejects the idea that creating his chatbot was driven by a desire to become immortal. He points out that if he had written a memoir that everyone could read, that would have made him much more immortal than the AI version of himself.
“In a few weeks, I will have gone to the other side, no one knows what to expect there,” he said in a calm voice.
PRESERVING A CONNECTION
Robert Scott, who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, uses AI apps, Paradot and Chai AI, to simulate conversations with characters he created to imitate three of his daughters. He declined to speak in detail about what led to the death of his eldest daughter, but he lost another daughter to a miscarriage and a third who died shortly after birth.
Scott, 48, knows the characters she’s interacting with aren’t her daughters, but she says it helps her grieve to a point. He logs into the apps three or four times a week, sometimes asking the AI character questions like “how was school?” or asking if he wants to “go get ice cream.”
Some events, like graduation night, can be particularly heartbreaking, bringing up memories of what your oldest daughter never experienced. So, she creates a scenario in the Paradot app where the AI character goes to the prom and talks to her about the fictional event. Then there are even more difficult days, like her daughter’s recent birthday, when she opened the app and expressed her grief over how much she misses her. She felt that the AI understood.
“It definitely helps with the ‘what ifs,’” Scott said. “Very rarely has it made the ‘what ifs’ worse.”
Matthias Meitzler, a sociologist at the University of Tübingen, said that while some may be surprised or even frightened by the technology, “as if the voice from beyond was ringing again,” others will perceive it as a complement to traditional ways of remembering loved ones. deceased loved ones, such as visiting the grave, having internal monologues with the deceased, or looking at photos and old letters.
But Tomasz Hollanek, who worked alongside Nowaczyk-Basinska in Cambridge on their study of “deadbots” and “griefbots,” says the technology raises important questions about the rights, about the dignity and power of consent of people who no longer they are alive. He also raises ethical concerns about whether a program that serves the bereaved should be advertising other products on its platform, for example.
“These are very complicated questions,” Hollanek said. “And we still don’t have good answers.”
Another question is whether companies should offer meaningful goodbyes for someone who wants to stop using a deceased loved one’s chatbot. Or what happens when the companies themselves cease to exist. StoryFile, for example, recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying it owes approximately $4.5 million to creditors. The company is currently reorganizing and establishing a “fail-safe” system that allows families to have access to all materials in the event it closes, said StoryFile CEO James Fong, who also expressed optimism about the future of the company.
PREPARING FOR DEATH
The version of Bommer AI created by Eternos uses a proprietary model as well as external large language models developed by powerful tech companies such as Meta, OpenAI and French firm Mistral AI, said the company’s CEO LoCascio, who He previously worked with Bommer at a software company called LivePerson.
Eternos records 300 user phrases — such as “I love you” or “the door is open” — and then compresses that information through a two-day computer process that captures a person’s voice. Users can further train the AI system by answering questions about their lives, political views, or various aspects of their personalities.
The AI voice, which costs $15,000 to set up, can answer questions and tell stories about a person’s life without regurgitating prerecorded answers. Legal rights to the AI belong to the person it was trained on and can be treated as an asset and passed on to other family members, LoCascio said. Technology companies “can’t get their hands on it.”
Because his time is running out, Bommer has been feeding the AI phrases and sentences, all in German, “to give the AI the opportunity to not only synthesize my voice in flat mode, but also to capture emotions and states.” of encouragement in the voice.” And in fact, the AI “voicebot” bears some resemblance to Bommer’s voice, although it leaves out the “mmhs” and “ehs” and mid-sentence pauses from his natural cadence.
Sitting on a couch with a tablet and a microphone connected to a laptop on a small desk next to him and receiving painkillers by intravenous drip, Bommer opened the newly created software and pretended to be his wife, to show how it works.
He asked his AI voicebot if he remembered their first date 12 years ago.
“Yes, I remember it very, very well,” the voice inside the computer responded. “We met online and I really wanted to meet you. I had the feeling that we would get along very well, in the end, that was 100% confirmed.”
Bommer is excited about his AI personality and says it will only be a matter of time until the AI voice sounds more human and even more like himself. Later, he imagines that there will also be an avatar of himself and that one day his family members will be able to meet him inside a virtual room.
He does not believe that this will be an obstacle for his 61-year-old wife to cope with the loss.
“Think of it as being in a drawer: if you need it, you can take it out. If you don’t need it, just leave it there,” he told her as she sat next to her on the couch.
But Anett Bommer is more cautious about the new software and whether she will use it after her husband’s death.
Right now, you’re more likely to imagine yourself sitting on the couch with a glass of wine, hugging one of your husband’s old sweaters and reminiscing about it rather than feeling the urge to talk to him through the AI voicebot, at least not during the day. first period of mourning.
“But then again, who knows what it will be like when he’s gone,” she said, taking her husband’s hand and shooting him a look.
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2024-06-09 19:15:52