There're a growing number of fee-paying companies

[Shegotanology]

such as StoryFile, Deepbrain and Replika that can turn a dead person's digital footprint into AI avatars and chatbots. One day, our ancestors will be able to access a digital representation of built from everything we've ever left online. I go on Ancestry a lot. I imagine one day, instead of paying for access to our ancestor files we'll actually be able to talk to them.

Be careful what you leave behind!

That’s a reality now.

Yep. For future gens though, they'll be able to see and chat to their GGG ancestors.

Over my dead body

@CalmShaker 😂

I suppose be grateful you’re not famous (assuming you’re not) and going to be subjected to AI duplication and use, whether you wanted that, or not, or had never had to consider the issue because you died in the time before AI but are on recordings.

Bloody disturbing. We are in shit times.

Good luck to any AI trying to mangle an avatar of me from my online presence. I suspect any attempt would give my surviving family a right good laugh.

PS what are these kangaroo tech companies you mention? Or are you just engagement farming really badly?!?

this was in the first season of Black Mirror. Or was it the second? The episode with Hayley Atwell.

I suppose this is the modern high-tech answer to people being cryogenically frozen, in the hope of being reanimated again when technology is sufficiently advanced.

I always wondered what their thinking was with that. Not just the actual technology, but the idea that a complete stranger would spend a fortune and a lot of their efforts to reactivate another complete stranger - who could have been a serial killer for all they know!

I blame ABBA and their ABBAtars for starting all of this

That’s rubbish though. I don’t speak on named social media like I do in reality or on anon. So they aren’t going to be getting the real version of anyone. Just bullshit.

I had to apply for a routine DBS check for my job and, in the info on the website, it also mentioned if employers (mine don't and wouldn't) have requested third-party checks on people's (private) social media. I was horrified; I had no idea such a thing even existed. I'm guessing that, if I were in a job where they expected that, I'd probably go on a 'highly suspicious' list, because they wouldn't find my (non-existent) social media (anonymous posting on MN is the closest I get to SM) and would probably assume that I had hidden my tracks... because I must have something seriously bad to hide!

It looks like there are loads of very dubious companies out there who will happily abuse your privacy, dignity and personal agency - whether before or after death - if there's money to be made by exploiting you.

Hopefully it won’t take off, will have no market and the tech will depreciate and become obsolete in a few years so all that’s left is some defunct files that don’t load on future computers. Like Encarta or Microsoft Works.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0r0erqk18jo

I was told once by a compliance officer

never write on line what you’d not want read out in court

It's not like speaking to a person though. It's no more of a connection than diary entries or work records and photos.

Yep. My dad always said to never put anything on the internet that you wouldn’t want published in the paper or broadcast on TV.

People are way too relaxed about what they put online.

@AnyOtherBrightIdeas You could look them up if you're interested.
The subject interests me as I use genealogy sites a lot, building trees and looking for my bio dad. I find it fascinating and wonder if one day, instead of paying for records, we'll be able to access our ancestors in an entirely different way.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68944898

I think that’s it! I’m not very interested as I don’t think it is an issue that will affect most normal people without significant online presence. Yeah, if you give lectures or appear on TV or have a vanity social media platform you’re at risk of deepfaking. If you’re a gas fitter from Droitwich people arent going to be harassing your nearest and dearest with dead avatars.

The current focus on AI is all a bit Tomorrow’s World.

And the thing that is often missed in this doom mongering is that humans are exceptionally good at spotting fakes. If someone sends me a deepfake of my dead uncle Pete speaking to me from beyond the grave, it’d be obvious to anyone who had known Pete that it was fake, in about 5 seconds flat. Pete made lots of instructional videos but Pete’s family and friends knew what really mattered to him: pies, beer and music ;) You can’t deepfake real-world social interaction and experience.