Ai Brought Back Agatha Christie

Black Mirror’s biggest competitor may just be reality. Ethical quandaries abound this week in the aftermath of two eyebrow-raising, unrelated instances of virtual resurrection:

• BBC Maestro (a service like MasterClass) launched a “world-first” writing course last week taught by an AI version of the late mystery writer Agatha Christie, in cooperation with her estate, using her writing and interviews, the BBC said.
• The next day, in Arizona, an AI rendering of a man who was killed in 2021 addressed the courtroom at his killer’s sentencing. The AI version appeared in a video created by the victim’s family, reading a forgiveness-heavy script that the victim’s sister wrote from his POV. The defense didn’t object, and the judge said he “loved that AI.”

Rise of the “deadbots”

One lane of the AI race is the global competition for best-at-simulating-dead-people, mostly using the deceased’s digital footprint and content provided by their family (which is pretty much the first episode of Black Mirror Season 2).

Startups like HereAfter AI, SeanceAI, and StoryFile have popped up in recent years to let people speak with deceased loved ones and have them respond to funeral attendees. And Google’s director of research on human–AI interaction started investigating how the tech giant could make a similar service last fall.

Privacy experts are worried. Beyond the risk that a loved one’s sensitive data or likeness could eventually fall into the wrong hands, “digital ghosts” could also complicate the grieving process.—ML