Artificial intelligence, digital eternity is just around the corner

Artificial intelligence

It is human nature to want to keep the memory of loved ones alive. Photography, for example, has proved to be a powerful tool in this regard, an aspect that I explored in 2020 in the Alive: Lost for Words project, in which I photographed people accompanied by the projection of the image of the loved ones they had lost. Recently, the pandemic has made us feel closer to death than ever, forcing us to come to terms with our own mortality and the legacy we leave behind. With the normalcy of our lives being undermined by enforced social isolation, digital tools have also drastically impacted the rituals that traditionally surround death. We used Zoom to say our last goodbyes and mourn together, or lit virtual prayer candles from our laptops.

Virtual immortality

In the coming years, technologies such as artificial intelligence ( Ai) and the blockchain will allow us to create new forms of posthumous digital presences. The adoption of these technologies is already opening our minds to the idea of ​​living forever in the virtual world. In 2020, for example, the Kaleida company created in collaboration with Kanye West for a hologram of Kim Kardashian's deceased father, on the occasion of the influencer's fortieth birthday. Genealogy research site MyHeritage has developed Deep Nostalgia, a tool for making deepfakes that animate the faces of missing relatives in family photos. Stonses, a blockchain-powered memorial platform, can store nft replicas of our most cherished possessions, granting immortality to the memories we associate with these objects.

The increased diffusion of Web3 technologies will take this concept to the next level. Immersive virtual reality, combined with multisensory stimulation, will allow us to interact with the image of our loved ones. We have already seen applications of this technology in the entertainment sector, where the startup Positron has created a range of armchairs that amplify the cinematic experience thanks to haptic cushions and perfume diffusers. Redesigned for commemorative purposes, this technology will allow us not only to see the image of the deceased, but also to smell their perfume and physically perceive their presence.

In the near future, technology will be used not only for save conversations with our departed loved ones, but also to replicate them, thanks to tools such as the hyper-realistic online chatbot Project December , which uses artificial intelligence to emulate the style of any text that is submitted to it. By learning from digital traces – text messages, blog posts, late-night tweets – AI will allow us to talk to a supertetch tool that can mimic a person who is no longer there.

Man as they further develop and become more accessible, these technologies will increasingly be used in combination, creating “intelligent avatars” that will continue to “live” long after we die. We're seeing a taste of this with metaverse company Somnium Space, which with Live Forever mode allows users to create "digital clones" built from data stored in life, which includes conversational style and even facial expressions. br>

Choices and new meanings

This sense of immortality may be reassuring, but there is a problem. Ai avatars will depend on us. It will be us who will have to provide their algorithms with an enormous amount of personal data, accumulated over the course of our lives. If we want our digital clones to live on, this is the exchange we must accept: that the unfiltered beliefs and opinions we express today can not only be archived, but also used to construct these forms of posthumous digital alter egos. In other words, we may have a voice after death, but we can't be sure what it will say. This will force us to reconsider how our behaviors today may affect the digital versions of ourselves that will outlive us.

Faced with the prospect of virtual immortality, 2023 will be the year we broaden our definition of what it means to live forever, a moral issue that will fundamentally change the way we live our daily lives, but also the very meaning of immortality .

This article originally appeared on sportsgaming.win Uk.