AI solution of the future: Talk to dead relative

 

Artificial intelligence
The AI ​​solution of the future - talk to your younger self

Sven Minell

Published 17.41

Would you like to be able to talk to a dead relative using AI technology?

A new Sifo survey shows that 75 percent of Swedes are against it.

- It can be an advantage for people in the future. Then it's something great. But if there is a risk that we get stuck in a grieving process. Then it's not quite as good, says undertaker Conny Sohlberg, 44.

Fonus has conducted a Sifo survey where it appears that 75 percent cannot imagine AI technology to talk to a relative who has died.

Young people more interested

Young people are slightly more positive than older people when it comes to AI technology, according to the survey.

- Young people today have lived with technology. You grew up with smart phones and tablets, says Conny Sohlberg, undertaker at Fonus.
 

FACTS

Five points: This is what the Sifo survey from Fonus shows:

Three out of four Swedes (75 percent) cannot imagine using AI technology to recreate or interact with digital versions of the deceased.

One in three (36 percent) strongly opposes this and considers it unpleasant or inappropriate.

There are few who want to be recreated themselves – only seven percent can imagine becoming one.

However, the survey shows that the younger generation is slightly more positive about AI technology compared to the older generation (10 percent among 18–29-year-olds, 2 percent among 65–79-year-olds).

4,512 respondents aged 18–79 answered the survey between January 25 and February 6, 2024.

              

            Tomas Seo, 50, Innovation strategist and writer of the newsletter This changes everything.     
            Photo: Private

Gets movie tips - by "himself"

It is already possible, with the help of AI, both to create a digital copy of oneself - but also to interact with it. As you can see in the clip above, Tomas receives tips about watching the film The Sawshank Redemption - by "himself".

Tomas gets movie tips from his avatar. Photo: Warner Bros

Talk about Trump - all day long

Innovation strategist Tomas Seo, 50, has entered what the AI ​​avatar should talk about. But it is possible to enter even more information. For example, you can enter information from Aftonbladet's news site and then you can discuss news all day long.

Then the avatar would have been aware of the latest before the US election with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, Mbappé's scandalous visit to Sweden or the latest in the war between Israel and Hamas.

 

Tomas Seo talks film to himself. Watch the clip in the TV player above. Photo: Aftonbladet

A copy of a person

In order to build a good AI avatar, which resembles a person, a lot of private information is required. This can be done by, for example, saving chats, emails and other digital history.

- Then you can get an AI avatar that looks like you, sounds like you and can talk about memories, says Tomas Seo, 50, innovation strategist and writer of the newsletter, This changes everything.

Just the beginning

And that's just the beginning. Soon the technology will be even more readily available.

- I think it will be required that it be included in Apple's or Google's own products as standard. And it will because it's too cool not to do as a marketing thing.

Talk to your younger self

In the future, it will be possible to talk to one's younger self. Today, many young people document what they do in their lives digitally with text, images and video,

- For today's youth, there will definitely be enough training data to train an AI avatar. It can then tell you about how the world looked at that time. It can tell you what they themselves did then. For example, what they ate and what music they listened to. It could be ten years away, says Tomas Seo.

Are there any philosophical dilemmas here?

- There are questions we will have to ask ourselves. Am I just the look or am I the look plus my voice? he says.

Conny Sohlberg, 44, undertaker at Fonus. Photo: Ulrika Lundholm Ericsson

There is no regulation

Today, there is no law that regulates how a document would be created regarding AI avatars in connection with someone's death. The law surrounding how deceased people's information is handled is difficult to interpret.

- But I think it is important to write it down. Either in his will. Or if you have a white archive or something. But that you are really clear there, says Conny Sohlberg, undertaker.

"Very clever dilemma"

A dilemma is the ethical part. Grief can be very strong and very differentiated. It can also happen that someone regrets it or that someone in the family says no.

- It is something that is very clever, the ethical aspects in this, says Conny Sohlberg.