Chinese use AI to resurrect family members – 12/14/2023 – Science

In a cemetery in eastern China, Seakoo Wu places his cell phone on the tombstone of his son’s grave and watches a video created by artificial intelligence that simulates the deceased young man.

“I know that every day you feel a lot of pain for me and feel guilty and useless. Although I can no longer be by your side, my soul continues in this world, accompanying you in life”, says Xuanmo in a slightly robotic voice.

Overcome with grief, Wu and his wife joined the growing number of Chinese people turning to AI to create avatars of their loved ones. He hopes to create an authentic replica that behaves like his deceased son in the virtual reality world.

“When we synchronize reality and the metaverse, I will have my son with me again. I can train him so that when he sees me, he knows that I am his father,” he said.

Some Chinese companies claim to have created thousands of “digital personas”, even from 30 seconds of audiovisual material of the deceased person.

Experts say the practice can offer important relief to people grieving the loss of a loved one.

Growing demand

Wu and his wife were devastated when Xuanmo, their only son, died last year at age 22. The young man suffered a sudden hemorrhagic stroke while studying at Exeter University, in the United Kingdom.

With the rise of AI technologies, such as ChatGPT, in China, Wu began looking for ways to resurrect it. He gathered photos, videos and audio of his son and spent thousands of dollars with companies in the industry that replicated Xuanmo’s face and voice.

The results are rudimentary so far, but he also set up a work team to create a database with a large amount of information about his son. The objective is to feed it with powerful algorithms to create an avatar capable of copying the young person’s thoughts and way of speaking.

Several companies specializing in so-called “ghost bots” have emerged in recent years in the United States. But the industry is growing in China, according to Zhang Zewei, founder of AI company Super Brain and a former collaborator of Wu.

“China is at the highest level in the world in AI technology. There are a lot of people in China, many with emotional needs, which gives us an advantage in terms of market demand,” said Zhang, whose company charges between 10 thousand and 20 thousand yuan (around R$7,000 and R$14 thousand, respectively) for a basic avatar.

Customers can even speak on the phone with an employee whose face and voice have been altered to resemble that of the deceased person.

“The meaning for the entire world is enormous. The digital version of someone can exist forever”, added the businessman.

‘New humanism’

For Sima Huapeng, founder of the company Silicon Intelligence, in Nanjing, the technology “will bring a new type of humanism”, as when in the past people turned to photographs to remember loved ones who have passed away.

Tal Morse, a visiting researcher at the Center for Death and Society at the University of Bath in England, said these bots could provide relief, but warned that more research is needed to understand their ethical and psychological implications.

“An essential question is to what extent ‘ghost bots’ are ‘loyal’ to the personality they were designed to imitate. What happens if they do things that ‘contaminate’ the memory of the person they are supposed to represent?” Morse asked.

For Super Brain’s Zhang, every new technology is “a double-edged sword,” but he said he believes that as long as it’s helping those in need, there’s no problem.

He doesn’t work with people for whom this would have a negative impact, he said, recalling the case of a woman who attempted suicide after her daughter’s death.

Wu stated, in turn, that Xuanmo would “probably be willing” to be digitally revived.

“One day, son, we will all meet in the metaverse. Technology improves every day, it’s a matter of time”, he said next to his wife in front of his son’s grave.