Now this is a weird one…kinda scary even.
With the passing of the day, technology is proving unlimited in what it can do. What’s now making waves on the internet is this new technology that has been created by Microsoft developers which let’s you communicate virtually with your dead loved ones. How? Just read on.
The patent which was given to Microsoft last month gives a clue as to how the conversation will be made possible; a conversational chatbot will be modelled after a specific person, it could be a friend, relative, lover, or anyone. In essence, information of the person will be collated from their “social data", that is, social media posts, pictures, messages, voice note and anything that traces back to that specific person. These then will be used to train the chatbot to “converse and interact in the personality of the specific person." You can now sigh with relief, nothing scary in the end ?
But in some cases though, this technology makes provision for applying voice and facial recognition algorithms to the culled data (voice note, recordings, images etc) in order to make a 2-D or 3-D model of the person to enhance the communication experience.
Does the technology reminds you of something you’ve seen somewhere before? I bet. If you’re a movie lover, you’d probably have come across a similar app in the 2011 dystopian TV series “Black Mirror". In it, the main character could continue communicating with her boyfriend who died in an accident by culling data from his social media with the use of the app.
This will be one hot product if launched into the market but Microsoft’s general manager of AI programs, Tim O’Brien, has confirmed that the company does not have any intention of turning the technology into a product. (Maybe not yet). In another tweet he said people found the technology “very disturbing". (Maybe it’s scary after all).
Well, this goes on to proof that technology is the new gold and almost anything is possible with it. Hope your heart didn’t skip a bit.
