Grieving father Seakoo Wu takes out his phone, places it on a gravestone, and plays a recording of his son in a serene cemetery in eastern China.
These are artificial intelligence-created words that the departed student never spoke.
Xuanmo says in a somewhat robotic voice, “I know you’re in great pain every day because of me, and feel guilty and helpless.”
“Even though I can’t be by your side ever again, my soul is still in this world, accompanying you through life.”
Wu, who is grieving, and his spouse have joined the increasing number of Chinese individuals who are using AI technology to make lifelike avatars of their deceased loved ones.
Wu’s ultimate goal is to create an incredibly lifelike virtual reality replica that acts and behaves exactly like his deceased son.
He will have his son back with him once reality and the metaverse synchronise, according to Wu.
He can teach him… so that he will recognise his father when he sees him.
Certain Chinese companies assert that they have produced thousands of “digital people” using only thirty seconds of the deceased’s audiovisual content.
According to experts, they can provide much-needed solace to those who have lost loved ones.
However, they also bring to mind an unsettling motif from the British science fiction series “Black Mirror,” in which bereavement support is provided by sophisticated AI.
– ‘Needs are growing’ –
When their only child, Xuanmo, 22, unexpectedly passed away last year at the age of 22 while enrolled at Exeter University in Britain, Wu and his wife were devastated.
Wu said that the posthumous organ donor, enthusiastic athlete, and student of accounting and finance had such a rich and varied life.
He told that he has always had a sense of right and wrong as well as a desire to help others.
Wu started looking into ways to bring him back to life after China saw a boom in deep learning technologies like ChatGPT.
He hired AI companies to clone Xuanmo’s face and voice for thousands of dollars after gathering images, videos, and audio recordings of his son.
Although the results are preliminary, he has also organised a team to build a database with a plethora of data about his son.
Wu intends to feed it into potent algorithms in order to produce an avatar that can precisely mimic his son’s speech and thought processes.
A number of US-based businesses that specialize in “ghost bots” have surfaced recently.
However, Zhang Zewei, the creator of the AI company Super Brain and a former Wu collaborator, claims that the sector is flourishing in China.
Speaking from a workspace in the eastern city of Jingjiang, Zhang stated that China is at the forefront of AI technology globally.
Furthermore, they have an advantage in terms of market demand because there are a lot of people in China, many of whom have emotional needs.
According to Zhang, Super Brain requires between 10,000 and 20,000 yuan ($1,400–$2,800) in order to produce a simple avatar in about 20 days.
They include the deceased, living parents who are unable to spend quality time with their kids, and—this is a contentious one—the bereaved woman’s ex boyfriend.
Even staff members whose voice and face are digitally superimposed with those of the person they have lost can conduct video calls with clients.
According to Zhang, “the significance for the entire world is huge.”
An individual’s digital record may endure indefinitely, even in the event of their physical demise.
– ‘New humanism’ –
The founder of Silicon Intelligence, based in Nanjing, Sima Huapeng, predicted that technology would “bring about a new kind of humanism”.
He compared it to photography and portraiture, which enabled people to remember those who died in novel ways.
Ghost bots might be consoling, according to Tal Morse, a visiting research fellow at the University of Bath’s Centre for Death and Society in Britain.
However, he issued a warning, saying that additional study was required to comprehend their ethical and psychological ramifications.
How ‘loyal’ the ghost bots are to the personality they were meant to imitate is a crucial question in this situation, Morse said.
What would happen if they did something that would ‘contaminate’ the person they are meant to represents memory?
According to experts, the incapacity of the person who passed away to give consent presents another conundrum.
According to Nate Sharadin, a philosopher at the University of Hong Kong who specializes in AI and its social effects, permission may be required to “do certain other things with that simulacrum” even though it was probably not necessary to mimic speech or behaviour.
All new technology is “a double-edged sword” for Zhang of Super Brain.
He sees no issues as long as they are assisting those in need.
Citing a woman who had attempted suicide following the death of her daughter, he said he doesn’t work with people for whom it could have negative effects.
Xuanmo “probably would have been willing” to be digitally revived, according to Wu, the bereaved father.
He spoke these words as his wife broke down in tears in front of his grave, “One day, son, we will all reunite in the metaverse.”
Time will tell if technology keeps improving at its current rate.
