Startup Out of MIT Promises Digital Afterlife — Just Hand Over Your Data

v3rgEz writes "A new startup out of MIT offers early adopters a chance at the afterlife, of sorts: It promises to build an AI representation of the dearly departed based on chat logs, email, Facebook, and other digital exhaust generated over the years. "Eterni.me generates a virtual YOU, an avatar that emulates your personality and can interact with, and offer information and advice to your family and friends after you pass away," the team promises. But can a chat bot plus big data really produce anything beyond a creepy, awkward facsimile?"

Yikes

[Bovius]

Holy balls that is creepy. At best, this would really weird people out who knew the dearly departed. At worst, it would provide a hook for traumatized loved ones to avoid dealing with the grief and get increasingly bottled up in a fantasy world.

It is difficult for me to imagine ways in which this would be a good thing.

Caprica

[stewsters]

Caprica. Watch it. Doesn't end well.

Re:Online and RL personalities are different

[mark-t]

I'm inclined to think that in general, people who act like dicks on the internet are actually dicks in real life who at best, possibly for reasons of conformity, may just be curbing their tendency towards being a dick around people they meet in real life to avoid the potential social and cultural complications. That doesn't mean that's who they really are, however.

Re:No.

[dmbasso]

No, it cannot. Once you're dead, you're dead. Game over.

True that. I doubt any software can truly emulate the nuance of human personality based solely on pictures and tweets.

Actually it is worse than that. People should learn to grieve and then go on with their lives. A bot would only hinder this necessary mental healing process.

who are you calling a "facsimile"?!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know, "creepy" and "awkward" gets you 97% there for most of this audience.