‘There is a 100% chance they will live with you forever’
A computer scientist has suggested humans could be able to upload the consciousness of loved ones to a computer by the end of 2023.
Dr Pratik Desai urged people to start making audio and video recordings their elderly relatives and loved ones because there is a “100 percent chance” they could end up “living with you forever.”
Desai has founded a number of Silicon Valley AI startups and has also created his own ChatGPT-like system.
Writing on Twitter, he said the prospect of being able to upload consciousness to a computer “should even be possible by the end of the year.”
He tweeted: “Start regularly recording your parents, elders and loved ones. With enough transcript data, new voice synthesis and video models, there is a 100% chance that they will live with you forever after leaving physical body.
“This should be even possible by end of the year.”
The process would include digitizing videos, voice recordings, documents and photos of the person, then feeding these to an AI system that learns everything it can about the individual.
Users would then design a specific avatar that looks and acts just like their relative did.
If you’re reading this and thinking it sounds like something from the world of Black Mirror, then you’d be spot on.
The series 2 episode of the anthology series, ‘Be Right Back’, is pretty much exactly about this. It follows a woman whose boyfriend, Ash, is killed in a car accident. She then discovers a technology that allows her to communicate with an AI version of Ash.
It seems like many people also made the link between this Black Mirror episode and the tech Desai tweeted about, and told the scientist to watch it.
The episode must have had a significant impact on him because he then tweeted: “Saw the Black Mirror episode everyone is suggesting. I get it now. It’s very personal issue and I sincerely apologize for hurting anyone’s feeling.”
“Sometimes when you see technology making it possible in your grief process and you think it is possible, you may go out of character and say something without a thinking seriously. I’m not a ghoul not I have desire to make any product like this.”
AI is one of the most debated technologies in the world at the moment, with ChatGPT perhaps the most recognised example of this.
This is a chatbot that, put simply, can answer pretty much any question you ask it. But the staggering and rapid development of the technology and AI tech in general is causing concern for many, including Elon Musk.
More than 1,000 tech leaders have now called for a pause on any development in the technology, over fears for what it could mean for humanity.
But others believe a lot of good can come from AI developments, including Bill Gates who has labelled AI the most important technological advance in decades.
Whilst he admitted there were challenges posed by the technology, he does not believe a pause on development would “solve” these.
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