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At the rapid rate AI is advancing, our humanity's future feels more and more unpredictable.
AI experts have already warned about scenarios where artificial intelligence could eventually 'seize control' from humans, and now there's another unsettling prediction to add to the pile.
While people are already forming romantic relationships with AI chatbots, using them for emotional support, or treating them as their closest confidants, researchers are warning that these technologies shouldn't be replacing real human connections.
But according to one Cambridge expert, we're about to take this digital dependency to a whole new level.
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Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska, a research fellow at Cambridge University's Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, believes that by 2030, we will 'have dead loved ones in [our] pockets' and will be able to talk with them 'almost 24/7,' thanks to AI.
Nowaczyk-Basińska, originally from Poland, specialises in researching 'what death and mourning will be like in a digital world' and how AI is affecting our relationship with death.
Her research suggests that cemetery visits will become 'old-fashioned' once we can have interactive conversations with AI recreations of deceased family members. Visiting a cemetery 'won’t be like having your loved one on a video call or in an app, with whom you can talk whenever you want.'
That said, Nowaczyk-Basińskahe warns that we don’t yet know what the consequences of the 'digital afterlife industry' might be.
The US and China are already creating products that analyse the internet activity of deceased people to build accurate AI avatars. We've seen mainstream examples like Rod Stewart's concert which featured a digitally resurrected Ozzy Osbourne performing in 'heaven.'
Companies like Replika (mimics deceased people's texting styles) and StoryFile (uses AI to 'allow people to talk at their own funerals') are also dominating this space. Nowaczyk-Basińska expects these services to become commercially available soon, likely operating on subscription models.
You wouldn't be alone if you thought this sounds like something out of a Black Mirror episode, though.
Alessandra Lemma from the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families points out a potential flaw in this technological revolution.
“The biggest concern that I have as a clinician is that mourning is actually very important," she said. “It’s an important part of development that we are able to acknowledge the missing of another person.”
Meanwhile, there are practical issues nobody has figured out yet such as what happens when private companies collect and store the data.
Nowaczyk-Basińska acknowledges these complications, adding: “Both sides [the living and the dead] should have their rights or needs equally respected.”
