A long-held dream of mankind seems to be becoming a reality with the help of artificial intelligence (AI): being able to talk to loved ones even after death. At least there are now AI apps that promise exactly that.
We all know voice bots by names like Siri or Alexa. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if a voice bot spoke to you in the voice of your deceased parents? Admittedly, the idea seems a bit strange. A loved one has long since passed away, but lives on forever, at least by voice. The HereAfter app can do that. With the help of AI, friends or relatives are able to communicate with the deceased.
However, it is of course a very simple form of communication. The AI language bot speaks like grandma or grandpa. However, the app only plays pre-recorded conversations of the deceased on a specific topic.
Speech bot responds with voice of deceased
How Siri or Alexa reacts HereAfter to questions. Although the app uses AI, it cannot formulate its own answers. The answers are pre-recorded voice files spoken by the deceased during their lifetime.
These can be memories of important life events, such as first love, marriage, an unforgettable vacation or the birth of children. If you ask the app about it, you will get a corresponding answer, telling you about the deceased person.
In order to create the illusion of a conversation, all recordings are also edited by people. The sentences that have been cut together in this way are then put together in a meaningful way by AI. So it actually sounds as if grandma or grandpa would answer a question that was asked.
In order to simulate an almost perfect conversation, certain phrases must also be spoken in advance, for example “Sure!”, “Okay!”, “I love you too!”, “How are you?”, “Everything is fine.”.
HereAfter wants to use AI to give the bereaved a kind of vocal legacy. For example, grandchildren can find out how grandma or grandpa thought about certain topics or even hear their voices if the grandparents died before the grandchildren were born.
However, more is not possible. The app does not provide any answers to questions such as: “How should I decide now?”, What would you advise me to do? Not yet.
Bots as video witnesses
The makers of go in a similar direction story file. Here is a video of the voice. Real people answer questions here. For example, on the start page there is a video of the actor William Shatner, better known as Captain Kirk from the TV series “Starship Enterprise”.
Shatner looks expectantly at the camera, waiting for questions. They can be set via the computer microphone at the push of a button, in English, of course. The stored AI then reacts to certain keywords. Suddenly the actor speaks and answers the question just asked. For some questions, the virtual Shatner also answers: “I didn’t understand that.” – just like Siri or Alexa.
A conversation with Captain Kirk may sound trivial. However, the idea behind Storyfile is much larger. Originally it was about keeping the memories of Holocaust survivors alive. In order to remind future generations of the murder of millions of Jews in World War II, the story file makers recorded videos. Upon request, these contemporary witnesses describe their terrible experiences.
On Storyfile there are more videos with people who were there as first responders at the attacks in New York on September 11, 2001. They answer questions and describe what they experienced back then. To the viewer, it feels like a real conversation. Similar to HereAfter, however, the AI only creates an illusion. Today, no AI can think and thus answer questions freely.
Also Read: Artist Uses AI to Show What Dead Celebrities Might Look Like Today
Intelligent voice bots ethically justifiable?
Even if AI is not yet able to think for itself these days, development is going in this direction. Therefore, language bots that work with the voices of deceased people in particular are the subject of criticism.
From an ethical point of view, the manufacturers of such apps must make it clear that this is not communication in the human sense. This is particularly important if AI should eventually be able to respond on behalf and in the voice of another person. If that’s the case, the app should point it out.
However, there is still a long way to go until then. Alexa and Siri can currently answer questions about the weather or announce the time. In order for language bots to be able to provide independent answers to more complex questions at some point, machines first have to learn to think.