A Microsoft patent would allow us to discuss with the deceased

A spooky Twilight Zone episode that first aired 60 years ago centered on a young boy (played by Bill Mumy) who frustrated his parents by insisting he talk to his grandmother daily on the toy phone she had given him just before her death. When her grieving and exasperated mother finally grabbed the phone to throw it away, she was surprised to hear her mother’s voice on the line.

The episode touched on the aspirations we all share to speak one last time to a loved one who is no longer with us.

If a recently disclosed Microsoft patent comes to fruition, we will be able to see, hear and converse with long-lost relatives. Or more precisely, with animated 3D images with realistic voice reconstruction and distinct personality traits taken from an individual’s treasury of communications on social media platforms. In short, a chat bot.

“Create a specific person’s conversational chat” is the dry but precise title of a patent filed by Microsoft’s Dustin Abramson and Joseph Johnson Jr. in 2017 and approved this month.

The patent states that the chat bot could use information gathered from social media posts, images, voice data, email messages, written letters, and other personal data provided by the individual or person. other people acting on behalf of the individual “to converse and interact with the personality of the specific person.”

Users could chat with the deceased, ask about memorable life events, or just call to say they love them. They could do this through a cell phone, desktop computer, or with personal assistants such as Alexa or Siri.

During a conversation with the chatbot, if a user asks a question for which there is little or no hard data stored, AI and machine learning processes would be leveraged to construct logical and probable answers. According to the patent, this could be achieved by relying on “crowd-based perceptions” and “psychographics”.

Earlier voice recordings combined with text-to-speech would be used to create a ‘speech font’, and the collected images, even if only in 2D, can be converted into 3-D motion from depth information. taken from old photos.

Sophisticated models on the road can allow users to talk to a person of different ages, as a brave youngster starting a new career, or as a wise elderly person reflecting on their life.

The idea of ​​bringing the dead to digital life is not new.

Michael Jackson “performed” at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards, five years after his death, using emerging holographic technology.

CGI renditions of Peter Cushing’s Grand Moff Tarkin and Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia continue to appear in the Star Wars films. And the recently completed war film “Finding Jack” stars a CGI-enhanced James Dean, the teen idol who died in a car crash in 1955 at the height of his popularity.

Last fall, Kanye West gave his wife, Kim Kardashian West, a hologram of his late father, a defense attorney in the notorious murder trial of OJ Simpson. The hologram dad “told” Kim about his decision to become a lawyer and carry on his legacy. (It’s no surprise that he also praised Kanye, “the most, the most, the most, the most, the most awesome man in the world.”)

Microsoft’s proposal differs from these examples. It would be the first time that a bot would be equipped with data collected from social media data.

The idea caught on in tech circles. Eternime.ai aims to keep a digital copy of you for future generations. AI avatars armed with memories and stories of participants log into social media accounts and wearable devices that allow them to engage in conversations with loved ones.

Likewise, Herfter AI conducts in-depth interviews with individuals and builds a digital information storage bin that family members can access in the future.

Chat bots aren’t limited to loved ones, according to the patent. They can be a “friend, relative, acquaintance, celebrity, fictional character, historical figure” or even “a random entity”.

The concept will certainly raise ethical issues. Without clear permission to use specific types of data, who will set the limits on what personal data and images are appropriate to use, potentially for eternity? What accuracy checks will there be? And what about the “deep fakes” in which realistic avatars are produced by political enemies or criminal enterprises who try to deceive a targeted audience?

All we know is that if a child or loved one is chatting on a cell phone with a deceased family member or friend, there is no more reason to be alarmed.

© Science X Network 2021