Startup Still Working On 'Immortal Avatars' That Will Live Forever (cnet.com) 90
Startup Eternime, founded by MIT fellow Marius Ursache, is still working on "immortal avatars" that, after your death, will continue interacting with your loves ones from beyond the grave. An anonymous reader quotes CNET:
Give Eternime access to your social media profiles and the startup's algorithms will scrape your posts and interactions to build a profile... The algorithms will study your memories and mannerisms. They'll learn how to be "you"... Eternime was announced in 2014 after Ursache developed the idea during the MIT Entrepreneurship Development Program. He wasn't entirely sure if he should develop the project further and wanted to get a sense of public reaction.
In the first four days, 3,000 people signed up at Eterni.me, the company's website, for a private beta. Then, Urasche received an email from a man dying of terminal cancer. "Eternime, he wrote, was the last chance to leave something behind for friends and family," Urasche told me. "That was the moment I decided that this was something worth dedicating my life to"... Since 2014, the Eternime website has largely been silent, although it continues to take names of people who want to test the service. Ursache says the Eternime team has been refining the product over the last two years, testing features, figuring out what will work and what won't.
"The private beta test is ongoing," according to the article, "and Ursache says the feedback has been positive." But unfortunately, the service still isn't operational yet.
In the first four days, 3,000 people signed up at Eterni.me, the company's website, for a private beta. Then, Urasche received an email from a man dying of terminal cancer. "Eternime, he wrote, was the last chance to leave something behind for friends and family," Urasche told me. "That was the moment I decided that this was something worth dedicating my life to"... Since 2014, the Eternime website has largely been silent, although it continues to take names of people who want to test the service. Ursache says the Eternime team has been refining the product over the last two years, testing features, figuring out what will work and what won't.
"The private beta test is ongoing," according to the article, "and Ursache says the feedback has been positive." But unfortunately, the service still isn't operational yet.
Mentally ill. (Score:1)
That's what you all are. I can't deal with this bizarre nonsense anymore...
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Mentally ill? You represent thousands of distinct personalities, Mr. or Ms. AC, and you call us mentally ill?
Or were you talking to yourself again?
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It is just like Jesus: he died millennia ago and people are still claiming to speak with him through dubious representations and mediations.
Ideally this company should include a taxidermy service and have the actual stuffed dead person voice the chatbot.
Obligatory (Score:2, Informative)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:Obligatory (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.maxheadroom.com/ind... [maxheadroom.com]
Re:Obligatory (Score:4, Informative)
Actually it's more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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No mod points to give you, but I agree.
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I'd rather have cash, but thanks.
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That's the one. San Junipero was positively upbeat by Black Mirror standards and seemed to be about "proper" uploading of consciousness (for the benefit of the person being uploaded) using not-invented-yet technology - something that's been exhaustively covered by SF (and we've got the TV adaptation of Altered Carbon coming soon). "Be right back" was much closer to the spawn of Eliza and Siri powered by Machine Learning snakeoil described in TFA.
The example that springs to mind is the novel Zendigi [wikipedia.org] by
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Having recently upgraded to VDSL broadband, I was browsing Youtube a few days ago and typed in "Heaven is a place on Earth". The music video by Belinda Carlisle is rather creepy with masked women in dark uniforms holding illuminated world globes and moving in unison. In the comments section were many comments about the "San Junipero" episode of the "Black Mirror" series. Intrigued, I watched some clips on Youtube about it yesterday. The episode ends with the song playing in the background as the lesbian lo
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turns out to be a paean against digitisation
More against half-arsed digitisation.
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Additional: his other books which touch on digitisation are much more positive about the whole thing.
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Additional: his other books which touch on digitisation are much more positive about the whole thing.
You obviously haven't read the short Transition Dreams (really horrible concept)... and there are several other shorts that pick at the philosophical aspects a bit more than the novels.
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I have read it, I guess I'm just thinking more of the stories where it's more or less taken as read and works perfectly, and just happens to be where the characters live.
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The [URL] thing is done automatically by Slashdot.
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It's to stop spoofing. You can read about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [stupid.com]
I know, I could've made that so much worse.
Black Mirror (Score:5, Informative)
I think this is literally the episode "Be Right Back" of Black Mirror.
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I was thinking of A Rose for Miss Emily.
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I think this is literally the episode "Be Right Back" of Black Mirror.
Max Headroom did it decades ago.
"That's... Wonderful!"
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It is literally the episode of Max Headroom.
https://www.google.com/search?q=max+headroom+loved+ones&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=max+headroom+deities
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it's not even that
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg29TuWo0Yo
Ego much? (Score:1)
How big does your fucking ego need to be to think that anything you have to say, think or do is necessary to anyone in the future? If you are dying, try talking to folks you love. They're remember you or not. Just take the dirt nap and get over yourself. This reminds me of that vanity bullshit show on NPR, "StoryCorp". No one cares about your story.
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"How big does your fucking ego need to be to think that anything you have to say, think or do is necessary to anyone in the future?"
Well, we'll see when the Trumpavatar keeps tweeting after his demise.
So we don't have to fear the reaper.
(needs more cowbells)
This sounds horrible ... (Score:5, Insightful)
the idea about friends is that you interact with them personally, that you spend time with them - that willingness to spend time with them is part of what makes the friendship worth while and makes you feel valued and wanted. Having some bot that can do this for you entirely devalues the idea of friendship.
I acknowledge that you might not be able to be physically present with some friends, maybe they live a long way away, but you will still spend time talking to them on the 'phone, emailing, ...
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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Black Mirror got way closer to this before now:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
This is terrible! (Score:4, Insightful)
The best feature about humanity is that shitty people die and stay dead. Now you want to bring shitty people back from the grave? Well, when Hitlerbot sends the SS after you, tell the Nazis that I told you so. ;)
Not that advanced technology, really (Score:3)
How hard is it to write a bot that does nothing but shitpost? Probably already passes the Turing shitpost test.
I was skeptical at first... (Score:4, Funny)
... but then I figured *living* people could use this technology so they don't have to spend time on Facebook, with their avatars doing the heavy lifting for them! If it catches on, the majority of users could have such avatars talking to one another and save significant time to the society. You'd only log in to Facebook every couple of months to tweak some settings if necessary and make sure it's smooth going.
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That's the risk I'm willing to take.
Problematic (Score:4, Insightful)
Under the hypothetical situation that they somehow pull this off, there are significant problems with this idea. First, people change with time, some more than others but an AI that only learns about you from your past will be eternally stuck in time. Worse yet, if it encompasses a lifetime of experience it will be all of you at once which would result in many conflicting statements. Second, you don't want avatars connected to social media because even if they manage to be a proper representation of a person in time that never advances, well, it won't progress with society and may actually hold back social progress if it's unclear if it's an avatar speaking.
It's all very unlikely but it's an interesting thought experiment.
Give the AI enough time ... (Score:2)
Caprica (Score:3, Insightful)
Wasn't this the idea in the TV show Caprica.
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Immoral (Score:2)
At first i read "immoral avatars".
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What about dads stock tips? (Score:3)
Even after my father formally retired he could not stop being an analyst. He has consistently beat both the DOW and WSJ's dartboard. Even through the World Financial Crisis he stayed in the black (by a pretty hefty margin).
This is relevant because once in a while he calls me to let me know of something he is investing in. Frankly, his tips have never failed While I make it sound otherwise, in hindsight, all of his investments look rather conservative.
This is relevant; because, I doubt any avatar is going to call me, talk about a motorcycle race for ten minutes, and casually drop a meaningful stock tip.
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This is a great idea (Score:3)
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It makes more sense that the service would be funded by the people who want to hear what the AI has to say. One-time fee for the setup.
Product successful; founder dead (Score:2)
He was the only beta test user, but the product is successfully continuing to answer e-mails for him.
Emulating bad side. (Score:3)
A well working AI will also catch the bad sides of someone personality. I am certain people will be delighted to get from-the-grave message from parents telling "dad has some work, please go back watching TV". People tend to remove bad memories from deceased beloved, and such a tool could temper with that.
But that may turn into a smart business plan: first collect money from dying people to send messages after death, then collect money for message recipients for stopping that.
Vaporware? Ghostware. (Score:2)
Does that mean (Score:2)
Why stop at the dead? How about you make avatars of living people, especially people you hate, so you can be mean to them.
Think about Harry Mudd.
Seen it. (Score:1)
A new low in privacy invasion (Score:2)
Simple, really (Score:2)
Now I'm sure I'm the only one who watched Caprica (Score:2)
And it is still a bad idea (Score:2)
Of course, it may sell like crazy, as many people have never come to grips with mortality (and hence are not adults by any sane definition) and will do anything to create an illusion of immortality.