AI is bringing back the dead: In the Black Mirror episode “Be Right Back,” a grieving widow uses an AI service, which imitates her dead husband’s digital footprint to allow her to converse with an AI version of him. CNN Money has found an AI startup which has managed to do just that (watch, runtime: 22:46). Eugenia Kuyda developed an AI algorithm to map her best friend Roman’s digital footprint and create a bot of Roman which would converse with her as if he was alive. She found herself carrying a conversation with her dead friend for a half hour. Her startup is part of a wave of companies looking to create digital immortality and challenge the very concept of death. We do not see ourselves as Luddites, but needless to say, the Black Mirror episode does not end well.

Tags: