Written by Michael Claxton<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2016, I went to see \u201cRogue One: A Star Wars Story,\u201d which is set in a time slightly before the original 1977 classic. The plot involves Rebel spies stealing plans for the Empire\u2019s battle station. Remember Grand Moff Tarkin, the evil governor who wants to blow up Princess Leia\u2019s home planet? He was played originally by veteran horror-movie actor Peter Cushing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cushing died in 1994. Imagine my surprise, then, when his avatar showed up in \u201cRogue One\u201d to reprise the Imperial villain role. \u201cHow in the world,\u201d I asked myself, \u201cdid they find a guy who looks exactly like him?\u201d As it turned out, they didn\u2019t. It was all CGI, with a voiceover supplying the dastardly British accent. The effect was eerie, to say the least. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I noticed later that the credits thanked \u201cthe estate of Peter Cushing.\u201d Given that the film brought in $1.058 billion, I assume the estate got a hefty residual. And so began the debate over the ethics of recreating the dead onscreen. It\u2019s hard enough for the children of bygone celebrities to decide whether dad would have wanted them to license those T-shirts and bobbleheads. But now they must choose what parts he would audition for beyond the grave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that quandary is child\u2019s play compared to the latest AI outrage. A Korean company has now created a chatbot that can resurrect the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For $10,000 or thereabouts, the company will come to your home and film you for several hours. The goal is to capture your voice, your speech patterns, your gestures and your mannerisms. Then, after you die, the company will create an artificially intelligent hologram that can speak with your family in your voice. It is being marketed as a source of comfort for the bereaved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the initial fee, I believe you pay extra for each viewing. Just like Redbox. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This, my friends, is a racket. As long as there has been grief, there have been swindlers trying to cash in on it. Back in the 1840s, a pair of sisters in upstate New York started pranking their parents. They discovered that they could secretly snap their toes together and blame the \u201craps\u201d on ghosts. Kate and Maggie Fox did not intend to start a religion, but as reports grew of their alleged ability to contact the deceased, so did the movement they accidentally inspired. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spiritualism was huge from the Victorian era through its peak after World War I, when grieving family members were anxious to have one final word from a son killed at Gallipoli. Seances, levitations, automatic writing, spirit manifestations and other flapdoodles swept the world. Gullible clients often paid through the nose to sit in a dark room and be duped by con artists who pretended to be in sync with the dead. Professional magicians like Harry Houdini were incensed and labored to expose rampant s\u00e9ance fraud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then as now, manipulating sad people is a rotten way to make a buck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Set aside how creepy this new AI horror show is. No chatbot, no matter how good, can authentically recreate a person. If it filmed our beloved Great Aunt Vera for weeks, it couldn\u2019t capture everything she knows or prepare her hologram to answer any question her relatives want to pose. If we want her to tell the story she hadn\u2019t told in years \u2014 about the time she and four of her sisters were riding on the back of a horse and all fell into the lake when the horse stopped for a drink \u2014 will she be able to? Of course not. Will the hologram make up a fake story? Probably. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consider the opportunities for fraud or spite. With a slight tweak in the programming, we can get a late relative\u2019s hologram to announce he\u2019s changing the will. Or to say something vicious to the cousin we don\u2019t like. Or to confess to something he never did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the very least, a glitch in the system \u2014 there are always glitches in the system \u2014 could have the dearly departed behave in a way that confuses, bewilders or upsets her loved ones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Life teaches us many things. One is that death is inevitable. We ache, we mourn, we grieve and yet we continue living. We must move on. Now, AI allows us to circumvent another crucial stage of human growth. Why seek closure and learn to let go, when we can pop in a $10,000 DVD and simulate one more chat with our old friend? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it works as it should, life teaches us how to respond maturely to what happens. Are the folks who create our technologies on board with that plan? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week marked 12 years since my father died. I think about him every day. I would dearly love to see him again, to hear his laugh, to hold his large, warm hand. But I am confident that, someday, I will. And I can wait. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I look forward to telling him how much money I saved. He\u2019ll love that. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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