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When I spoke on the phone, my face appeared on the screen and I said, ‘Hello, my name is Robert and I hope I can tell you about my life.’
I was talking to an AI avatar of mine, designed to allow people to “go on living” after death so their family members can talk to them and learn about their lives.
My wife’s reaction to my AI clone was one of absolute horror, as she simply said, “Oh my God, why?”
The clone comes courtesy of a ‘digital afterlife’ service, Hereafter.AI, part of a wave of ‘grief technology’ powered by artificial intelligence. created by programmer James Vlahos after the death of his father cancer in 2016.
AI experts who spoke to DailyMail.com believe that AI robots to “emulate” loved ones will become more sophisticated in the coming years so that people can “go on living” after death, and 3D holograms could even appear at Christmas dinner.
Talking to myself has never been more surreal (Image; Rob Waugh)
The service creates a ‘Legacy Avatar’ that can live on after your death (Rob Waugh/Hereafter)
Vlahos programmed a ‘Dadbot’ while his father was still alive, recording his responses to questions, and Hereafter’s service now uses AI to facilitate interaction.
The app now promises “Your stories and your voice.” Forever.’
Hereafter’s custom chatbot has my photo: you talk to it by pressing a button on the screen and the image pulses before responding, like a digital Ouija board.
The first time you hear your own voice coming out of the screen is quite alarming, and I imagine it would be even more so if it were a deceased relative.
But the service is quite impressive: the AI allows you to converse very naturally with the “dead” person and guides you to anecdotes that the person has pre-recorded about their parents, hobbies, etc.
The process begins with the app interviewing you at length about your life, with automated prompts that slowly “fill in” the details (asking you questions about siblings, for example, and memorable vacations), and then the AI does the rest.
It feels pretty natural to chat with her, and because the topics the app asks you about tend to be emotional, there’s a raw honesty to talking to her that you don’t usually get from talking to real people.
There’s one huge, glaring problem with the service: It costs $3.99 a month to access the basic version and $7.99 to access the full version.
In other words, your deceased relatives can “live on” as long as you continue to pay.