Microsoft’s patent would allow us to talk to those who left

A chilling episode of Twilight Zone, which first aired 60 years ago, focused on a boy (played by Bill Mumy) who frustrated his parents by insisting that he talk to his grandmother daily on the toy phone she had given him little before I die. When her bereaved and exasperated mother finally grabbed the phone to throw it away, she was startled to hear her mother’s voice on the line.

The episode touched on the longing that we all share in talking one last time with a loved one who is no longer with us.

If a recently released Microsoft patent is successful, we will be able to see, hear and talk to relatives for a long time. Or, more precisely, with 3-D moving images complete with realistic voice reconstruction and distinct personality traits selected from an individual’s communications treasure on social media platforms. In short, a chat bot.

“Creating a conversational chat bot for a specific person” is the dry but accurate title of a patent registered by Microsoft’s Dustin Abramson and Joseph Johnson Jr. in 2017 and approved this month.

The patent states that the chat bot can use information collected from social media posts, images, voice data, electronic messages, written letters and other personal data provided by the individual or others acting on behalf of the individual “to chat and interact in the personality of the specific person. “

Users could talk to those who left, ask questions about important events in their lives, or just call to say they love them. They can do this through a cell phone, desktop computer or with personal assistants like Alexa or Siri.

When chatting with the chatbot, if a user asks a question for which little or no concrete data is stored, the AI ​​and machine learning processes would be used to build logical and likely responses. According to the patent, this could be achieved based on “crowd-based perceptions” and “psychographic data”.

Previous voice recordings combined with speech synthesis would be used to create a “voice source”, and the collected images, even if only in 2-D, can be converted to 3-D movement from depth information taken from photos old.

Sophisticated models in the future can allow users to speak to a person at different ages, such as a brave young man starting a new career or a wise old man reflecting on a life.

The idea of ​​bringing the dead to digital life is not new.

Michael Jackson “performed” at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards, five years after his death, thanks to emerging holographic technology.

The CGI interpretations of Grand Moff Tarkin by Peter Cushing and Princess Leia by Carrie Fisher continue to appear in Star Wars films. And the recently completed war movie “Finding Jack” stars James Dean with CGI, the teenage idol who died in a car accident in 1955 at the height of his popularity.

Last fall, Kanye West gave his wife, Kim Kardashian West, a hologram of his late father, a defense attorney at the notorious OJ Simpson murder trial. The hologram father “talked” to Kim about his decision to become a lawyer and continue his legacy. (Also, not surprisingly, he offered effusive praise to Kanye, “the man more, more, more, more, more genius in the world.”)

Microsoft’s proposal differs from these examples. It would be the first time that a bot would be equipped with data collected from social media data.

The idea caught on in technology circles. Eternime.ai aims to preserve a digital copy of you for future generations. AI avatars armed with participant memories and stories connect to social media accounts and handheld devices that allow you to chat with relatives.

Likewise, Henceforth AI conducts extensive interviews with individuals and builds a digital information storage compartment that can be accessed in the future by family members.

Chat bots are not limited to relatives, according to the patent. They can be a “friend, a relative, an acquaintance, a celebrity, a fictional character, a historical figure” or even “a random entity”.

The concept will certainly raise ethical questions. Without clear permission to use specific types of data, who will set the limits on what personal data and images are appropriate for use, potentially for eternity? What accuracy checks will there be? And what about the “deep fakes” in which realistic avatars are produced by political enemies or criminal enterprises that try to deceive the target audience?

All we know is that if a child or other relative is talking on a cell phone with a deceased relative or friend, there is no reason to be alarmed anymore.

© 2021 Science X Network