During the Spring Festival this year, Luo Peixi used AI technology to "resurrection" her grandmother without telling her mother. She combined her mother's current appearance with the old photos left by her grandmother. After more than 60 years, my mother and grandma finally "met" again. This was her birthday gift to her mother. After receiving the gift, her mother's expression was recorded on video by Luo Peixi. "She laughed out loud like a child. She laughed and cried. She must not have imagined that technology has developed to this extent."
In fact, repairing and synthesizing old photos is only the primary form of AI "resurrection". Some time ago, several videos of AI "resurrecting" dead celebrities attracted attention. Many people suddenly realized that AI technology has developed to the stage where the deceased can "speak", which also triggered a series of questions about ethics, law, etc. discussion of issues.
In fact, with the help of AI technology to express longing for loved ones, different business models have gradually formed - some use AI technology to make photos "move" and simulate the voice of the deceased to have real-time conversations with family members; A digital person is generated for a person while he or she is alive, and is made more "real" through repeated training, in order to achieve "digital immortality"...
In the age of AI, do we already have a second option to face death?
AI "resurrection"
Luo Peixi recalled that her mother’s sister passed away some time ago, and the whole family was immersed in an atmosphere of sadness. At the memorial service, she overheard her uncle mention that her mother was only 3 years old when her grandmother died. At that moment, she decided to give her mother such a special birthday gift. Later, the photo was framed and hung in a prominent place at home, where it can be seen every day, "filling the gaps in my mother's childhood memory."
Luo Peixi was previously a social product manager, and this technology was not complicated for her. She used AI tools to first restore and color her grandmother's old photos, then aged her grandmother's portrait, and finally combined her mother's photos with them. Luo Peixi said, "If there is similar but more complete technology in the future, it can allow the family of the deceased to go through the difficult period after losing a loved one. Proper use of (this technology) may be a good thing."
Wang Tao is a practitioner in the AI industry. Since December last year, he and his friends have helped people in need "resurrect" their deceased relatives for free. This thing originated from a request for help. At that time, a woman wanted to use AI to "resurrect" her deceased husband to make up for her regrets. Wang Tao and the others helped her.
Immediately afterwards, many people found them one after another. Among them, the one who impressed Wang Tao deeply was a middle-aged man who wanted to "resurrect" his grandma as a birthday gift to his father. After receiving the "Resurrection" video, the middle-aged man specially sent a voice message to thank him: "My 80-year-old father held the video and watched it over and over all night. While watching it, he shed tears and muttered, 'I have a mother.'" Wang Tao and his friends were deeply touched, and they continued to do it for more than two months. Later, a friend proposed to commercialize this service, which Wang Tao could not accept. In his opinion, "the algorithms and data used are free and should not be used to make money in this way," so he gave up on the matter.
Also last year, A Liang quit his job and started engaging in AI services to "resurrect" deceased relatives. What he didn't expect was that more than three months later, AI's practice of "resurrecting" dead celebrities attracted attention, and what A Liang did was also pushed to the forefront. A Liang believes that "AI's practice of 'resurrecting' dead stars has gained traffic in a crude way, but it has damaged the reputation of the entire industry."
Afterwards, in order to avoid risks, many online platforms restricted the flow of content related to the "resurrection" of AI. A Liang was also affected. The number of likes on his videos dropped sharply from three digits before to one now. Some videos were even directly blocked or deleted, which caused a significant drop in the number of customers.
"Virtual Conversation"
In the comment area of relevant topics on online platforms, netizens’ attitudes toward AI “resurrecting” deceased relatives are clearly polarized. Some netizens believe that the "resurrection" of AI can "give us the opportunity to say what we want to say but haven't had time to say, and help us let go of our obsessions." Some netizens also objected to this, "If you don't even want to face photos of your deceased relatives, why would you choose this kind of 'resurrection'?"
Before entering this industry, A Liang did market research. He found that the demand for "resurrecting" the dead does exist, "but the current technology may not be able to fully meet it." Wang Tao feels, "there are still obvious flaws in the current effect, such as The sound has a lot of holes and the dialogue isn’t that silky.”
AI "resurrection" of the dead needs to provide relatively clear photos and rich sounds and other materials. However, 80% of the customers currently received by A Liang do not have original sound files, and although the rest do have them, the quality is not high. In light of recent controversies, he began to gradually adjust his business ideas and focus on returning to text communication without paying too much attention to sounds and images.
Some time ago, he launched a text conversation function on his WeChat service account. It only takes a few tens of seconds to answer a few questions, and the AI can be "trained" to have certain personality characteristics of the deceased relative, and can text with the user in front of the screen. Conversation, and it's free. This service "currently has nearly 2,000 users, which has exceeded the number of paying customers."
Previously, many people approached A Liang with the need to "resurrect" their deceased relatives, but in the end very few people paid. Later, he found a batch of low-priced AI large model resources, and built a "virtual dialogue" function on this basis. Without a lot of publicity, many people started to use it one after another. In A Liang’s view, the design of this service is very simple. “It is also because it is simple enough that it is easy for many people to get started, and in a scenario like WeChat, everyone will feel that it is very real.”
However, as more and more people use “virtual conversations”, so do the risks. For example, how should the current conversation data of less than 2,000 people be saved? Is there a risk of privacy leakage? A Liang said that the data is actually stored on the WeChat platform. They only have the authority to inspect it, and the relevant responsibilities are not clearly defined. In order to avoid these problems, his team is developing an App. He hopes that in the future this service will be more autonomous and controllable, and the conversation performance and security measures will be better.
Currently, A Liang’s team has less than 10 people, most of whom are technicians in the AI industry, most of whom work part-time. Although the overall situation is at a loss, the cost of customer acquisition is high, and the actual number of paying people is relatively small, he firmly believes that as people’s concepts change and many young people in need become the main users, “This thing will definitely make money in the long run. ".
"Digital Immortality"
In the movie "The Wandering Earth 2", Tu Hengyu stores and uploads the consciousness of his daughter Yaya, who died in a car accident, to the digital world in an attempt to allow her daughter to achieve "digital immortality." This plot has attracted a lot of attention and discussion. "Digital immortality" actually uses AI technology to create a digital identity that can exist in the virtual world by analyzing and simulating individual data, thereby realizing human "immortality." But judging from the reality, AI technology is still far from developed to this point and can only simulate human life behaviors and key characteristics.
The entrepreneurial project Liu Xiaoben is working on is related to "digital immortality". He was born in 2000 and is the leader of this entrepreneurial team. He is also a graduate student majoring in philosophy of science and technology. Liu Xiaoben and his team believe that "digital immortality" will become the second choice for humans to face death in the future besides the traditional funeral industry.
He believes that "digital immortality" is divided into two processes: "data retention" and "data deduction". The recently hotly debated process of generating videos of “resurrected” deceased persons is a typical “data deduction”. "Data retention" is to collect a person's biological data (such as video, audio, etc.) and organize it into a data set that can be processed by AI. Liu Xiaoben and his team are currently focusing on realizing these two processes, and advocate that the "data retention" link be open to the living, through interviews, audio collection, video collection and other forms, to retain more real data for convenience Carry out subsequent "data deduction" work and finally complete "digital immortality".
As an entrepreneurial project, Liu Xiaoben's team currently has five people, all of whom are current students. The project has been incubated and implemented, and the school has provided venue support. "Achieving one million revenue" is Liu Xiaoben's goal this year. He feels that "there is a 30%-50% success rate."
Yu Hao has also been involved in this field. He has worked in the funeral industry for four or five years before. He feels that the traditional funeral industry provides more physical facility services and lacks cultural inheritance and spiritual companionship. "Today, AI technology provides a carrier to better meet people's spiritual needs." Later, he focused on digital life services, including exploring "AI + funeral services" related businesses.
In 2022, at the memorial service of Academician Wu Mengchao, the "Father of Chinese Liver Surgery", with the help of AI and other technical means, Academician Wu's virtual image started a "space-time dialogue" with his colleagues and students during his lifetime, and many people present became famous. Eye sockets. Yu Hao was responsible for planning and executing this link. He hoped to complete a "warm farewell" for Academician Wu in this way. Today, digital funerals have become one of the company's main businesses.
Digital people are also the main business of Yu Hao’s company. Different from AI "resurrecting" the dead, Yu Hao is more exposed to situations where customers require the generation and training of digital humans to be completed before they are alive. Among them, there are children who hope to generate digital people for their parents, and there are also elderly people in their 50s and 60s who actively request to generate digital people. They hope that through continuous interactive training, digital people can become more real, thus becoming a way to extend life.
Two or three months ago, Yu Hao came into contact with a client. The doctor said that her father could only live for two more years. She hoped to generate a digital human for him to "preserve" his memory that was beginning to fade. Yu Hao introduced that the company’s digital human generation generally refers to six dimensions: image, voice, expression, personality, knowledge base and memory. Among them, the last step of "memory engraving" is the most difficult, because memory uploading is a continuous process and can only be achieved through continuous communication with digital people.
How to protect privacy
The "seed customer" of Liu Xiaoben's team is a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties. He was touched by the concept of "digital immortality" and was ready to create a digital life for his parents. Currently, Liu Xiaoben and his colleagues have been conducting oral history interviews with his parents for three months and will continue in the future. "When the elderly know that this thing will be left to the next generation, their attitude is still very positive." However, from imagination to reality, they are experiencing various challenges such as "how to standardize data privacy protection". Liu Xiaoben hopes that a third party will supervise their work.
In the related business of Yuhao Company, ethical and legal disputes are also inevitable. Yu Hao said that they will try to avoid risks from two aspects: "First, the person who generates the digital must be authorized by himself, and if it is a deceased person, he needs the authorization of his immediate family; secondly, the relevant data must be encrypted and protected and uploaded to the cloud. The process will seek cooperation with relevant government departments.”
In fact, neither AI "resurrection" nor "digital immortality" rely on brand-new technology. Wang Tao has long been paying attention to the development of AI technology. He explained that these application directions were repeatedly mentioned by "insiders" in 2018, but in 2022, as AI robots successfully have the function of comprehensive dialogue with humans, these application directions will The application direction can really be implemented.
He is not surprised that the recent "resurrection" of AI has caused controversy. "This aspect is currently in a gray area." Wang Tao said that new applications of technology will definitely cause controversy. The sooner the controversy arises, the better. "Only in this way can this technology slowly 'grow up'."
Of course, the so-called "growing up" cannot just be blind business expansion, but there are laws and regulations to follow in the relevant application directions.
Wang Hui, a lawyer at Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, said that according to the "Internet Information Services Deep Synthesis Management Regulations" that will be implemented on January 10, 2023, "deep synthesis service providers and technical supporters provide biometric information such as faces and voices. If there is an editing function, users of the deep synthesis service should be prompted to inform the individual being edited in accordance with the law and obtain their separate consent." Therefore, when using deep synthesis services, you need to obtain the consent of the individual being edited; if the person being edited is a deceased person, you should obtain the consent of relatives who have the obligation to protect the rights and interests of the deceased's portrait.
In addition, the "Internet Information Services Deep Synthesis Management Regulations" also clearly regulates "data and technology management": Deep synthesis service providers and technical supporters should strengthen training data management and take necessary measures to ensure the security of training data; training data includes If personal information is collected, the relevant regulations on personal information protection shall be followed.
Lawyer Wang Hui said that with the development and application of AI technology, a large amount of personal data is used to train AI models to improve their accuracy and efficiency. This data includes, but is not limited to, personally identifiable information, location data, spending habits and even biometric information. If these sensitive data are improperly handled, it may lead to serious privacy leaks, thereby damaging personal rights and interests, and even threatening the public safety of society. Therefore, it is necessary to continue to improve relevant laws such as "data privacy and protection".
Shen Yang, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Journalism at Tsinghua University, suggested that on the one hand, developers and users should take responsibility to ensure that AI technology does not mislead users or affect human emotions; on the other hand, they should also pay attention to privacy protection and data security. In related services, AI needs to process a large amount of personal sensitive data (such as facial expressions, voice intonation and even physiological data) to analyze the user's emotional state. Once this data is abused or leaked, it will pose a serious threat to the user's privacy.
Is “AI + emotion” possible?
In addition to how to protect user privacy, A Liang will also pay attention to the physical and mental status of users of the "virtual conversation" service. In his view, the currently widely discussed issues such as technology infringement and fraud have solutions and can be constrained by the law. However, the user's physical and mental state is difficult to control and process. For example, some people will become addicted to this function because they miss their deceased relatives, or if the AI says a wrong sentence, it may also have an impact on the user's psychology. .
"In many cases, even if you take avoidance measures, such as not talking about 'suicide,' users may still be harmed by a certain sentence of AI." A Liang hopes to cooperate with research institutions to pay attention to this issue.
Wei Ran is a national second-level psychological counselor and a registered psychologist of the Chinese Psychological Society. In her view, the emergence of technologies such as AI "resurrection" of the deceased can indeed alleviate the pain of bereavement to a certain extent and make up for some unresolved issues. Regret, especially the regret of not having the opportunity to say a solemn farewell to the deceased, can be used well to help the living better come to terms with the death of a loved one.
At the same time, Wei Ran also discovered that related technologies may hinder the grieving process. She further explained that regarding the psychological reactions of humans when facing death, the psychological community generally agrees on the "five stages of grief", namely denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The "bargaining" phase occurs when the living person is unable to accept the death of a loved one and attempts to exert control to change the situation.
"This is the stage where the living will purchase related services. When the living see the image of the deceased, it will not only relieve the pain of lovesickness, but also create the illusion of fighting against death and controlling life and death, which will make the living feel A strong sense of control and a positive emotional experience. However, if you are addicted to this sense of control, it will also hinder the natural completion of the grieving process. In other words, the living will be stuck in the 'past' and cannot really move forward. Walk."
Professor Shen Yang found that there are two obviously opposite directions in the current application of AI technology. One is the rational development path of AI, "emphasizing that it is just a big language model"; the other is the emotional development path of AI, "doing everything possible to prove that it can become a human being." companion". The AI "resurrection" and "digital immortality" businesses are exactly the latter, trying to achieve revenue through the "AI + emotion" model.
He said that long-term sociological and psychological research will be conducted in the future to evaluate the impact of emotional AI on human behavior, social structure and mental health, and to ensure that technological development is coordinated with the sustainable development of human society. At the same time, it is necessary to develop algorithm models that are inclusive and adaptable to improve the emotional recognition accuracy of AI so that it can learn and understand the emotional expressions of different groups of people.
So, in the AI era, has "resurrection" or "digital immortality" become our second option in the face of death?
The answer given by the "Wen Xin Yi Yan" large AI model developed by Baidu is: Although AI "resurrection" or "digital immortality" technically provides us with a new way to face death, we still need to respect life. natural laws, while deeply thinking about and responding to the resulting ethical, philosophical and social challenges.
(At the request of the interviewee, Wang Tao and A Liang are pseudonyms in the article)
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily trainee reporter Xi Congcong reporter Li Ruoyi Source: China Youth Daily