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Directors Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck talk about their documentary ETERNAL YOU, which looks at the growing landscape of AI startups that use AI to “recreate” a deceased person, allowing them to be “brought back from the dead” to connect with grieving loved ones.
Hans and Moritz explore the “digital afterlife industry” after having stumbled across a website promoting “digital immortality”. At first they believed it was a scam in the making, only to discover there’s a market for this technology, and it’s growing.
There are still so many questions, even ones yet unasked, regarding ethics, science, technology, mental health and medicine, and ownership rights for treating these digital entities (intellectual property rights) and this documentary merely opens the door to scenarios for people to think about these questions and more.
Are enough people looking into the development of these tools with an eye towards ethical guidelines and effects on mental health? Is there enough educational or political interest to raise awareness and guide future developments in this industry? There is a bigger, broader landscape where, for now, it seems like anything goes.
Live Science: ‘ELIZA,’ the world’s 1st chatbot, was just resurrected from 60-year-old computer code
Website: https://www.filmmovement.com/product/eternal-you
Website: https://www.laokoon.group/
ETERNAL YOU is available now on VOD and most digital outlets.
What are your thoughts about using AI to replace deceased loved ones, or as a substitute for other various human relationships? Let us know! Send Summer an email, or leave a message in the comments below!
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Hi from “The relative in France” mentioned in the interview (20:00) !
Grief is hard (and tabou). I used Project December and find it really cool and helpful. My daughter loved creepypasta. I took one of her latest Creepy Pasta on Youtube as “her words” and what comes out is really amazing.
I think that only people with schizophrenia can believe they are really speaking with a loved one and not with a computer. They have to go to a therapist. The illness was there before they used the app, for instance because they believed in life after death and used the AI as a phone for confirmation.
I’m glad you found it helpful, that’s a teeny bit of good that emerged. But I still cannot wrap my head around all the future legal and ethical potholes just waiting to happen. It’s going to be an interesting ride, that’s for sure.
If you build a simulation of The Joker with Project December and ask some bad questions, the AI can answer “I’m in hell” or “42”, I won’t call it an ethical pothole.