Fantasies of immortality and extended life preservation are likely as old as humanity itself, but new advances in robotics and advanced artificial intelligence models are inching those transhumanist tales closer to reality at a rapid pace. AI researchers and entrepreneurs eager to cash in on our deepest-rooted anxiety are already developing AI replicas of aging humans that can capture some glimpse of a loved one’s soul.
Today, companies like HereAfter and Deepbrain AI are using the same underlying tech employed for deepfakes and chatbots in order to create digital replicas of people before they die. These replicas use data and personal memories provided by the soon-to-be deceased human to create a convincing copy. Others, like those at the transhumanist group Digital Immortality Now, are similarly developing methods and protocols to properly log and collect data which they say could one day be used by an advanced superintelligence AI to digitally resurrect a deceased person.
Separately, advances in shockingly life-like robotics systems hint at a future where those digital replicas could have a body they use to move around in the world. Hanson Robotics, a Hong Kong-based robot manufacturer formed in 2013 has already developed several creepy-looking humanoid robots modeled after humans that speak and interact with others in the style of the human they are based on. The result is a textbook definition of the uncanny valley.
Here are a handful of AI and robotic companies working, in various ways, to bring people back from the dead.
