Popular Mechanics - USA (2022-05 & 2022-06)

22 MAY / JUNE 2022 popularmechanics.co.za

After you die, you could

be resurrected as a

chatbot. That’s a problem

N

O ONE KNOWS WHERE WE GO WHEN

we die. Or for that matter, what happens

to our most intimate thoughts, dreams,

and desires when the nerve cells in

our brains fire for the very last time.

But it looks as though Microsoft may have

some ideas.

In December 2020, the US Patent and Trademark

Office (USPTO) granted a patent to Microsoft that

outlines a process to create a conversational chatbot

HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS

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/ B Y C O U R T N E Y L I N D E R /

of a specific person using their social data. Specifically,

Microsoft could use images, voice data, social media

posts, text messages, and written letters to ‘create or

modify a special index in the theme of the specific

person’s personality’.

That sounds pretty benign, but in an eerie twist, the

patent states that the chatbot could potentially be inspired

by friends or family members who are already dead. And

the system could even generate a 2D or 3D simulacrum of

the person.