Artificial intelligence cannot bring the dead back to life, but it may be able to simulate talking to deceased loved ones to help humans navigate the grieving process.
A high-tech revamp of the traditional seance comes amid the rapid growth of large-scale language models, a form of AI trained on large amounts of text. ChatGPT’s release year sparked debate about how far the technology can go, as chatbots mimic human conversations and respond to prompts from humans.
Jarren Rocks, product designer and manager at Los Angeles-based software development firm AE Studio, is working on a program called Seance AI that allows people to converse with chatbots that mimic their deceased loved ones.
“Essentially, it’s meant to be a short exchange with a sense of closure, and that’s really the main focus here,” Rox told Futurism magazine. “It’s not meant to be super long-term. In its current state, it’s meant to provide a conversation for closure and emotional processing.”
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Around 1900, during a seance in Paris, the table seems to have moved of its own accord. (Getty Images)
Humankind has long been fascinated by trying to communicate with the dead, but by the late 19th century people were flocking to attend séances, and at least four million Americans became “spirit mediums.” has reached its climax. According to The New Yorker, even global cultural figures like Mark Twain and Queen Victoria attended séances and dabbled in the occult.
However, such activities were shunned by many other Americans and Christians, and the Catholic Church issued decrees in 1898 condemning spiritualist practices and in 1917 decrees banning séances. .
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Harry Houdini, a longtime opponent of fraud within the Spiritualist movement, shows how a medium can ring a bell with his toes during a seance. (Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG, Getty Images)
At the planned AI seance, only chatbots will communicate with the living, but Rox said he was leaning towards the “magic” aspect of the technology.
“We try to make it sound as magical and mystical as possible,” he told Futurism about the Seance AI name.
Rocks told Fox News Digital that the program’s name is “deliberately memorable because we believe it can provide some people with real solace.” He added that he and AE Studio are “greatly concerned about the safety of AI” and “want to draw attention to the potential impact of the technology”, but “supports sound regulation but We are not going to stop the progress of AI,” he said. “
According to the report, the program uses technology from OpenAI, the AI lab behind ChatGPT, and users tell the program the name, age, personality traits and how they died of the person they want to talk to. It is said that Users can also upload a text from a deceased loved one as a template of how the deceased person used to communicate during their lifetime.
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Once the information is uploaded, the user can go to a web page displaying flames and send a message to a pseudo loved one. The chatbot mimics a deceased loved one and responds based on the information given to it, Futurism reported.
Rocks told Fox News Digital that he had been considering building such a technology since the advent of large-scale language models, noting that he and his colleagues at AE Studio have all lost loved ones. pointed out.
“Personally, I’m not as interested in the other side as I am in dealing with the grief I’m carrying on this side,” he said. “We humans have been obsessed with understanding what lies beyond death for a very long time. There is very little we are working on.”
The program uses technology from OpenAI, the AI lab behind ChatGPT, and users are asked to tell the program the name, age, personality traits, and method of death of the person they want to talk to. (Josep Largo/AFP via Getty Images)
Rocks said the program has a similar feel to an episode of “Black Mirror,” which details surreal synthetic reenactments of deceased persons, but is intended for regular use. It is said that it was not done.
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“For short conversations, I think it’s pretty human. I think it’s a little broken.” [when you] “We’re starting to recognize repetition, we’re following patterns, but we don’t know exactly what’s going on,” Rocks said.
Rocks likened the program to a high-tech Ouija board that can be used for closing purposes.
“Traditional séances do not last forever. Personally, I find short periods of time useful for facilitating closure and a useful tool for processing unresolved emotions. There are some possible long-term applications, and we’ll probably launch other features later,” he told Fox News Digital, adding, “someone’s AI ghost in the graveyard.” Pointed out the possibility of building functions.
“My key priority for Seance AI is to provide tools that help people process their losses,” he added.
Artificial intelligence is gaining attention among people grieving the loss of loved ones, such as reproducing the voice of a deceased person. (St. Petersburg)
Artificial intelligence is gaining attention among people grieving the loss of loved ones, such as reproducing the voice of a deceased person.
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South Korea-based technology company DeepBrain AI has created a program called “Re;memory” that allows users to upload videos, audio and photos of deceased people, and uses it to create virtual versions of people who can communicate with humans. It was created. In China, tech developers are building what they call “griefbots” to help people communicate with their deceased loved ones, according to insiders.
Rocks said SeanceAI will launch on Tuesday and will include testing a free tier level of the program as well as a paid tier for long-term users.
