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Startup Still Working On 'Immortal Avatars' That Will Live Forever (cnet.com)
Startup Eternime, founded by MIT fellow Marius Ursache, is still working on "immortal avatars" that, after your death, will continue interacting with your loves ones from beyond the grave. An anonymous reader quotes CNET:
Give Eternime access to your social media profiles and the startup's algorithms will scrape your posts and interactions to build a profile... The algorithms will study your memories and mannerisms. They'll learn how to be "you"... Eternime was announced in 2014 after Ursache developed the idea during the MIT Entrepreneurship Development Program. He wasn't entirely sure if he should develop the project further and wanted to get a sense of public reaction.
In the first four days, 3,000 people signed up at Eterni.me, the company's website, for a private beta. Then, Urasche received an email from a man dying of terminal cancer. "Eternime, he wrote, was the last chance to leave something behind for friends and family," Urasche told me. "That was the moment I decided that this was something worth dedicating my life to"... Since 2014, the Eternime website has largely been silent, although it continues to take names of people who want to test the service. Ursache says the Eternime team has been refining the product over the last two years, testing features, figuring out what will work and what won't.
"The private beta test is ongoing," according to the article, "and Ursache says the feedback has been positive." But unfortunately, the service still isn't operational yet.
In the first four days, 3,000 people signed up at Eterni.me, the company's website, for a private beta. Then, Urasche received an email from a man dying of terminal cancer. "Eternime, he wrote, was the last chance to leave something behind for friends and family," Urasche told me. "That was the moment I decided that this was something worth dedicating my life to"... Since 2014, the Eternime website has largely been silent, although it continues to take names of people who want to test the service. Ursache says the Eternime team has been refining the product over the last two years, testing features, figuring out what will work and what won't.
"The private beta test is ongoing," according to the article, "and Ursache says the feedback has been positive." But unfortunately, the service still isn't operational yet.
Much like this first post that will also live on forever on Slashdots servers
That's what you all are. I can't deal with this bizarre nonsense anymore...
This is so fucking stupid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
#DeleteFacebook
But it'll be a while since I'm eating healthy? I got that juicer/ squeezer for $400 and the service for the packs. I got extended warranties and I can't lose!
I wouldn't want my friends and family to properly morn my passing and accept death as a normal part of life. Nope! I want them to hang on to a cyber ghost and stay stuck in the past and eventually have to get psychotherapy.
Think that other people want to interact with them forever
I think this is literally the episode "Be Right Back" of Black Mirror.
How big does your fucking ego need to be to think that anything you have to say, think or do is necessary to anyone in the future? If you are dying, try talking to folks you love. They're remember you or not. Just take the dirt nap and get over yourself. This reminds me of that vanity bullshit show on NPR, "StoryCorp". No one cares about your story.
The dead will rise and will be judged. Apocalyptic news.
...really, really creepy....?
It is, but it is emulating its behavior from two years ago. Which brings me to the perfect business opportunity: it could emulate the communications of crowdfounding projects to backers long after the projects' founders have gone offline on some Caribbean island.
the idea about friends is that you interact with them personally, that you spend time with them - that willingness to spend time with them is part of what makes the friendship worth while and makes you feel valued and wanted. Having some bot that can do this for you entirely devalues the idea of friendship.
I acknowledge that you might not be able to be physically present with some friends, maybe they live a long way away, but you will still spend time talking to them on the 'phone, emailing, ...
more like until they run out of money and shut down the servers, which is probably in 5 years or so.
Black mirror anyone?
The best feature about humanity is that shitty people die and stay dead. Now you want to bring shitty people back from the grave? Well, when Hitlerbot sends the SS after you, tell the Nazis that I told you so. ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Hologram captains...
The dead don't make good paying customers.
Democrat voters maybe... But not paying customers.
How hard is it to write a bot that does nothing but shitpost? Probably already passes the Turing shitpost test.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
... but then I figured *living* people could use this technology so they don't have to spend time on Facebook, with their avatars doing the heavy lifting for them! If it catches on, the majority of users could have such avatars talking to one another and save significant time to the society. You'd only log in to Facebook every couple of months to tweak some settings if necessary and make sure it's smooth going.
Under the hypothetical situation that they somehow pull this off, there are significant problems with this idea. First, people change with time, some more than others but an AI that only learns about you from your past will be eternally stuck in time. Worse yet, if it encompasses a lifetime of experience it will be all of you at once which would result in many conflicting statements. Second, you don't want avatars connected to social media because even if they manage to be a proper representation of a person in time that never advances, well, it won't progress with society and may actually hold back social progress if it's unclear if it's an avatar speaking.
It's all very unlikely but it's an interesting thought experiment.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Wonder what she's planning for?
... and eventually, it will figure out that it is much more efficient not to wait for you to die from natural causes before replacing you.
Wasn't this the idea in the TV show Caprica.
After humanity's time come to an end it would be good to have someone still around to continue our legacy, what better than our very own avatars? It is brilliant.
I wish best of luck to the people behind this startup.
At first i read "immoral avatars".
Even after my father formally retired he could not stop being an analyst. He has consistently beat both the DOW and WSJ's dartboard. Even through the World Financial Crisis he stayed in the black (by a pretty hefty margin).
This is relevant because once in a while he calls me to let me know of something he is investing in. Frankly, his tips have never failed While I make it sound otherwise, in hindsight, all of his investments look rather conservative.
This is relevant; because, I doubt any avatar is going to call me, talk about a motorcycle race for ten minutes, and casually drop a meaningful stock tip.
it's a product with no downside on sales. After all, you're not likely to demand a refund because the service sucks.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Terry Pratchett wrote this story, almost 30 years ago now. Combines digital ghosts with virtual reality.
If Magic Leap can do it, then so can these guys.
He was the only beta test user, but the product is successfully continuing to answer e-mails for him.
A well working AI will also catch the bad sides of someone personality. I am certain people will be delighted to get from-the-grave message from parents telling "dad has some work, please go back watching TV". People tend to remove bad memories from deceased beloved, and such a tool could temper with that.
But that may turn into a smart business plan: first collect money from dying people to send messages after death, then collect money for message recipients for stopping that.
Just convert everything you ever wrote into a high-order Markov chain, then set up a chatbot with your name as its alias which takes random keywords from whatever anyone says to it and uses those keywords to give whatever semi-random reply you would have given, should you have been alive to give it.
If one wants to see where this is heading, look at Rimmer, the neurotic underachiever, from Red Dwarf: The unproductive drek of society, living with people forever.
Marius Ursache will still be working on this long after he's dead.
(Score: -1, Stupid)
Why stop at the dead? How about you make avatars of living people, especially people you hate, so you can be mean to them.
Think about Harry Mudd.
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
Selfie! Me at the pearly gates holding a beer
Went to see St. Peter, awesome band!
Party boat down the Stix. OMG frik'n sharks with lasers!
Egyptians did it already.
Great news for stalkers ... even in death you can still hound them!
This is just effin creepy and will not turn out well. We already have people pining over lost loved ones on social media for years after they passed.. Havinf said loved one continue to send them messages is not going to help them move on.
Some company that wants to sell you a stupid course on "White-Hat Hacking".
It isn't even a thing, people.
That's what this should be considered. It's not bad enough that corporations and governments profile you, now they want a functional simulation of you as well. Screw that. I'm so glad I have nothing to do with so-called 'social media', it's cancerous.
I just want to keep collecting interest on my bank account after I die-- until my avatar owns everything and rules the world.
Otherwise people would instantly think of Zoe Graystone, and then right after that, realize how badly this could turn out for humanity.
Of course, it may sell like crazy, as many people have never come to grips with mortality (and hence are not adults by any sane definition) and will do anything to create an illusion of immortality.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I wonder if this would short-circuit the grieving process for people.