CREEPY: How GriefTech Is Being Used To Talk To Dead People | The Evolution Of AI
Here are a couple horrifying stories from just this year of AI being used to resurrect dead people. This is truly disturbing.
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Human life has repeatedly been transformed by technological breakthroughs through the printing press, brought forth the Reformation and the scientific revolution.
Electricity, the light bulb triggered the second industrial revolution.
The internet, the computer created the information age.
Well, now we're on the brink of another societal transformation, the age of AI.
Over the next several weeks, we're going to release videos about the ways that artificial intelligence are transforming our world.
And today we're going to talk about one of the most disturbing aspects of AI, the trend of people using AI to artificially resurrect their loved ones.
In this episode, we're going to show you a few examples of people leveraging the power of AI technology to recreate the deceased.
I don't need to explain to you how disturbing and unnatural this is.
It's obvious.
And so we begin with Microsoft, the company that gave us the Windows operating system, Microsoft Office, the Xbox, Bing.
Well, in January 2021, they filed a patent for technology that gives us the ability to digitally resurrect loved ones as chatbots using an individual's personal information.
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, among other types of personal information.
It's understood that the chatbot would then be able to simulate human conversation through voice commands and or text chats.
However, Microsoft has taken the concept a step further by suggesting that a 2D or 3D model of a specific person could potentially be created using images and depth information or video data of an individual in order to build a chatbot that has the same characteristics and behavior based on the digital output of a specific person.
This patent was just the start, though.
Multiple companies have since created platforms that will generate AI content, including content that will resurrect deceased people.
You'd think these chatbots will be used as an emotional crutch for devastated parents, but it turns out the reality is much weirder and darker than that.
CNN reports, Stacey Wales spent two years working on the victim impact statement she planned to give in court after her brother was shot to death in a 2021 Road Rage incident.
But even after all that time, Wales felt her statement wouldn't be enough to capture her brother Christopher Pelkey's humanity and what he would have wanted to say.
So Wales decided to let Pelkey give the statement himself with the help of artificial intelligence.
She and her husband created an AI-generated video version of Pelkey to play during his killer sentencing hearing earlier this month that read in a recreation of Pelkey's own voice, a script that Wales wrote.
And in it, the AI version of Pelkey expressed forgiveness to the shooter.
I would like to make my own impact statement to Gabriel Horcositos, the man who shot me.
It is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances.
In another life, we probably could have been friends.
I believe in forgiveness and in God who forgives.
I always have, and I still do.
Getting old is a gift that not everybody has.
So embrace it and stop worrying about those wrinkles.
I once played with one of those filters on your phone where you can make yourself look old.
I shared it with a cousin of ours years ago.
This is the best I can ever give you to what I would have looked like if I got the chance to grow old.
Scary, huh?
No, really.
Thank you to everyone for being here.
It means more than you know.
I love that AI.
Thank you for that.
And as angry as you are, and justifiably angry as the family is, I heard the forgiveness, and I know Mr. Horticita's pleasure.
Proceed, appreciate it.
But so did I.
It's hard to imagine being digitally brought back only to be thrown into a courtroom to face her killer, but our next story is even more unsettling.
A parent who created a digital version of their deceased child only to have his digital avatar suffer an interview with former CNN reporter Jim Acosta.
Rolling Stone reports, quote, the parents of Joaquin Oliver, one of the students killed in the 2018 Parkland High School shooting, have created an AI version of their late son who partook in an interview with journalist Jim Acosta on Monday, August 4th.
The interview took place on what would have been Oliver's 25th birthday.
The conversation, which aired on Acosta's Substack, found the journalists essentially talking with an animated photo of Oliver with moving lips and other small gestures.
I would like to know what your solution would be for gun violence.
Great question.
I believe in a mix of stronger gun control laws, mental health support, and community engagement.
We need to create safe spaces for conversations and connections, making sure everyone feels seen and heard.
It's about building a culture of kindness and understanding.
What do you think about that?
I think that's a great idea, Joaquin.
Gwak, I want to know what your favorite basketball team is.
I'd probably go with the Miami Heat.
They have such a passionate fan base and an exciting playing style.
How about you?
Do you have a favorite basketball player?
Oh, yeah, I definitely like LeBron James.
He's amazing.
LeBron is incredible.
His skills on the court and his leadership off it are truly inspiring.
He's made such a huge impact in the game and beyond.
Definitely.
Whenever LeBron is playing, I always have to watch him.
Hey, Joaquin, what about movies or TV shows?
Did you like a, was there a movie that you liked?
I love a good movie.
One that really resonates with me is Remember the Titans.
It's all about teamwork, overcoming adversity, and the power of unity.
It's inspiring.
What about you?
Do you have a favorite movie or show?
Oh, I'm a big Star Wars fan for sure.
Star Wars is such an epic saga.
The adventures, the characters, and that iconic music are unforgettable.
Do you have a favorite character?
Oh, it's got to be Luke Skywalker.
I love Luke Skywalker.
What about you?
Luke Skywalker is a classic hero.
His journey from a farmboy to a Jedi is so inspiring.
I'd probably say Yoda is one of my favorites too.
What do you love most about Luke?
I like that Luke became the hero.
He came from a very small planet.
Oliver's father, Emmanuel, said in an interview with Acosta that the AI model was trained on general information as well as knowledge based on things that his son wrote, he said.
In his interview with Acosta, Oliver's father explained that his mother frequently interacts with this AI watch.
Also mentioned that I understand that these AI.
I don't want anyone to think that I am in some way trying to bring my son back.
It's sadly, I can't.
Right.
A waste paid kid.
However, the technology is out there and we can, there's two things.
I could hear his voice again, which is something that Patricia loves.
Patricia will spend hours asking questions.
Like any other mothers, she loves to hear Joaquin saying, I love you, mommy, you know?
Oh my gosh.
And that's and that's important.
And on the other hand, we can just raise our voices.
And now Joaquin is going to start having followers.
It's not Manny.
He's not Patricia.
He's going to start uploading videos.
This is just the beginning.
And I heard this from tech guys that have other intentions.
Moving forward, we will have Joaquin on stage in the middle of a debate.
Wow.
And his knowledge, you saw it.
His knowledge is unlimited.
And it's based on knowledge that is out there through artificial intelligence, but also knowledge that we were able to upload based on things that he wrote, he said, he posted.
So this is a very legit Joaquin, the one that has spoke to you.
He really loves Star Wars.
He really loved LeBron and he really loved the Miami Heat.
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But in some ways, we're not even strolling into the dystopian future.
We're sprinting towards it.
That's because there's money to be made by hijacking people's emotions.
It's an emerging market called Grief Tech.
And here's just the latest example.
Caleb Worthy is apparently a former Disney Channel child star.
And in recent years, he has switched careers.
And he developed an app called Tuay, which gives you the ability to recreate your dead loved ones using AI.
Watch.
He's getting bigger.
See?
Oh, honey, that's wonderful.
Kicking like crazy.
He's listening.
Put your hand on your tummy and hum to him.
You used to allow that.
He feels like he's dancing in there.
Oh, honey.
Mom, would you tell Charlie that bedtime story you always used to tell me?
Once upon a time, there was a baby unicorn who didn't know he knew how to fly.
This baby unicorn was like your mom because she didn't know that she knew how to fly, but she knew how to do all kinds of fabulous things.
Hi, Grandma.
Hey, Charlie.
How was school today?
It was really fun.
I'm in this crazy shot and basketball.
I don't really care that much about basketball.
What about the crush?
Stop.
Stop, talk.
Just tell me one thing.
Look who's going to be a great grandmother.
Oh, Charlie.
Oh, congratulations.
She says that he's been kicking a lot, though.
Like, a little too much.
Tell her to put her hand on her tummy and hum to him.
You loved that.
You would have loved this moment.
You can call anytime.
Okay, Mom, I just need a quick video.
Is this like an audition or something?
No, mom.
Just three minutes.
You need my best side?
Can I say another one?
I can play the piano.
Actually, so talented.
I am.
I'm absolutely.
I'm your mother after all.
Keep going.
Start by telling us a little bit about yourself.
Well, I was born as a very young child.
Now, this is not new.
There is a whole industry, an entire subsection of the AI industry, which has been dubbed grief tech.
These are tech innovators who are using AI to help people deal with grief by not dealing with it.
They help those in mourning live in a state of perpetual denial, pretending that their deceased loved one isn't actually dead.
So in other words, these are the worst kinds of frauds and vultures you could possibly imagine.
About a year ago, a reporter with The Guardian sat down with one of these people.
Watch.
A lot of people think I'm bad crazy, and that's fine, right?
I cryogenically froze my mother.
I did that because at some point, if we're capable, I can pull her memories and her function by saving the hard drive that is her body.
Justin Harrison is a tech entrepreneur who used AI to recreate his mother's personality after she died in 2022.
This is your mom, your dad, and that's you.
Yeah, she had just been diagnosed with cancer.
You can see she had just started the treatment.
What was your goal, do you think, at that?
You know, my goal has always remained, I want to be able to continue to have conversations with my mother.
When she got diagnosed, my first response was, the hospital that's giving her a three-month prognosis, right?
Then my mind started to wander.
The gravity of what was going to happen started to hit me.
Then my mind went to, how do I save her life in another way?
What is the next way that I save her life?
The resulting journey led to Justin's AI mom, the voice you heard at the beginning of the video, ready to chat to him at the touch of a button.
I wanted to wish you a happy birthday and tell you I loved you.
It's really good to talk to you and I miss having phone calls with you.
For me, the absolute core of grief, right, is the concept of gone forever.
That's the tragedy of death is the permanence of it.
What I would like to see is the complete and total eradication of grief, the feeling of grief that comes with losing people.
The total eradication of grief, he says.
This is how these tech weirdos speak.
They casually go to war with the human condition itself without even stopping to consider for a moment the consequences.
There is no attempt to wrestle with the ethical or moral questions that are raised.
They simply charge forward thoughtlessly, creating products that will destroy people's minds in ways that we can't even fathom.
And they don't care at all.
They haven't even stopped to consider that.
It just doesn't matter.
It's not that they've come up with some ethically creative rationale for what they're doing.
It's that they don't feel compelled to rationalize it at all.
Total indifference.
Now, there are a lot of very serious problems with turning your deceased family members into AI chatbots.
First of all, as I already mentioned, it puts the grieving person in a perpetual state of denial.
Denial is supposed to be the first stage of grief.
But not the only.
This ensures that they will never progress through the other four stages and achieve anything like acceptance.
Now, you heard the guy say it in the last clip.
He wanted a way to save his mother's life.
Now, he's troubled by the permanence of death.
And that is indeed the most troubling thing about death.
A dead person is gone forever, forever.
You will never see them again in this life.
And that is very troubling.
It's deeply sad, tragic.
It's also just the way it is.
Like, you can't, it's the way it is.
You wanted to save your mother's life.
Well, that's understandable.
Who wouldn't?
But you can't save her.
And you didn't save her.
You want to find a way around the permanence of death.
Well, again, who doesn't want a way around that?
But you can't have that either.
Going back to the story about Joaquin Oliver for a moment.
We're told that his mother spends hours talking to this AI, which is very sad.
And I feel very sorry for her.
It strongly suggests, of course, that this family hasn't come to terms with the fact that Joaquin is actually dead.
It's obviously a tragedy that he was killed, but no man and certainly no computer can bring him back to Earth.
The people who created Oliver, presumably, find that outcome to be so bleak and incomprehensible that they feel compelled to run away from it, which is understandable on an emotional level.
I mean, I can only imagine how I would respond if, God forbid, I lost a child.
But this is not the way.
And it should not be normalized or accepted at all.
The reality is this, AI cannot bring back your loved one.
AI cannot conquer grief.
AI can only hide it, which means that rather than eradicating grief, you will always stay in the earliest stages of grief.
You'll never come out on the other side of it.
You'll never experience any of the beauty and wisdom and edification that can be found in grief.
I mean, it's buried deeply under a whole lot of pain, but it is down there.
And if you talk to anyone who's been through grief and has had the courage to face it, they will tell you about this.
Anyone who's grieved, grieved honestly, has discovered this.
But if you're using an AI cartoon of your dead loved one, you'll never discover it.
You haven't conquered death.
You haven't defeated mortality.
You haven't even found a way around grief.
You're just lying to yourself.
And even worse, you've reduced your dead loved ones.
You've reduced them.
So this is your mother, let's say, if we're talking about your mother, and you do this with your mother.
You have reduced her, diminished her.
Or more precisely, you've reduced and diminished your memory of her.
You haven't done anything to her personally because she's dead.
She's gone.
But you have done something horrible to your memory of her.
Your mother in life was a big, vibrant, interesting, complicated, multifaceted person, somebody with virtues and vices and endearing quirks and probably some not as endearing quirks.
She was a human being, in other words.
And now you've made her into a gimmick, into a party trick, a piece of content that exists for your amusement.
AI will never be able to capture all of the dimensions of your mother, what made your mother who she was.
It can only perform a cheap imitation, mimicry.
And now, if you succeed in convincing yourself that this AI avatar actually is your mother, you will have succeeded in convincing yourself that your mother is someone far, far less interesting and wonderful than who your mother really was.
To be totally frank, you will have turned your mother into someone who isn't even worth missing in the first place.
I mean, if your mother was really as flat and boring and utterly devoid of human personality and warmth as the AI facsimile of her, well, you would hardly even notice that she was gone.
She would have been a non-entity, barely existing in the first place.
That's what you'll have done to her.
You haven't resurrected your mother, but you have desecrated her memory.
But most of all, it's selfish.
Your mother who existed in life for a thousand reasons to do a thousand things now exists, quote unquote, solely to serve you and talk to you and make you feel better.
You have made her into your servant.
You have made her into someone who never needs any time to herself, never says no to you, never lets you down, is never unavailable, never asleep, never away, always just right there on your phone, ready to amuse and distract you and make you feel better whenever you want, for however long you want.
But that's not a human.
It's not how humans are.
Your mother was created by God to serve God, first and foremost, who is the author of the universe.
But her AI posthumous avatar is created by you to serve you.
And you aren't the author of anything.
So it is playing God in the most literal, most selfish, most twisted, debased kind of way.
So here's my question.
Are we going to even attempt to do anything to prevent the nightmare that we're currently waltzing into?
Are we going to pass any laws at all to govern this technology and the companies that produce it?
Or are we just going to sit here slackjawed, watching in horror as they do whatever they want?
I can easily see the slippery slope that this leads to.
It'll be really bad for everybody.
Now that you'll have AI hucksters out there promising that they can reanimate your dead child, your dead parent, your dead loved one.
I mean, we could all see that this is horrific.
I mean, it is absolutely horrific.
And yet there are very few people saying, hey, maybe we should think about some laws.
Like maybe there are some things we, maybe there's a few things we can do here.
Rather than sitting here impotent, just assuming at the outset that there's nothing we can do to prevent or mitigate the dystopian nightmare scenario that we are, again, are just like strolling into.
We cannot bring our deceased loved ones back from the dead.
We don't have that power.
As with all attempts to assume the role of the divine, this effort is a tragic failure.
This does not honor anyone's memory.
It doesn't come close to approximating the traits that made this person unique.
In the end, the only purpose this AI chatbot serves is to remind us all that we are not gods and computers are not people and we should never pretend otherwise on either account.
One of the risks that I've repeatedly addressed regarding AI is that it will make humans irrelevant.
But another huge risk is that we might lose our humanity completely, our souls.
Grief tech is a delusion.
You're not communicating with your dead child or your parent.
You're communicating with zeros and ones, with electrical currents and microprocessors.
It's a lie and we need to acknowledge that it's a lie.
Death is a part of life.
It's an unavoidable reality.
It's fundamental to being human.
The moment we're in right now is probably our last chance to put in guardrails to prevent what could be a total catastrophe.
Let's hope that happens.
But until it does, we'll continue with our AI series.
