Featured Image Credit: X/2wai
Topics: News, US News, Technology, Artificial Intelligence
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: News, US News, Technology, Artificial Intelligence
A new app is facing furious backlash on line after it showed how users can connect with deceased relatives through AI avators.
Changes are happening very quickly when it comes to technology and artificial intelligence but some people are becoming more wary of its applications.
A new video has begun circulating around social media showing how one company hopes to implement AI to allow users to interact with real life people, even if they have died.
According to the company behind the video, 2wai, it is a platform 'that enables users to create and interact with lifelike HoloAvatars via the web and the 2wai app.'
Advert
It also stated: “HoloAvatars are generated holographically in just 3 minutes using video footage captured by users, and allow real‑time, two‑way interaction like never before."|
However, many people on social media have pointing out the ethical considerations in regards to this.
The video 2wai has been promoting shows an AI avatar of a real life elderly women who has passed away interacting with her daughter who is expecting her own child.
It continues to show that child growing up speaking with the deceased relative through the AI app through the years.
The video concludes with the real life elderly women having her body scanned and answering a few questions while being recorded by her daughter, seemingly so the app can create the AI avatar.
The co-founder of the company, Calum Worthy, known for his role in the Disney Channel series Austin & Ally, has also been sharing the video and caught some of the backlash on social media.
One critic wrote: “You know they’ll introduce a tier where your dead relative starts reading you advertisements.”
Another wrote: This is creepy AF, going to be living with this nightmare.”
A third wrote: “What a wonderful idea -- gradually replace my internal representation and memories of my deceased loved ones with AI slop!”
Another added: “This made me cry tears of horrifying sadness for what our society is becoming.
“To say that this is absolutely terrible doesn't do justice to the awfulness this is.It is hard to shake the dread I feel come over me when I see this.”
With another commenting: “Letting go of loved ones and getting your heart broken is a crucial part of the human experience.
“This is a genuinely inhumane idea, and I don't use that word lightly. Nothing good can come to anybody who uses it.”
Some users have argued in favor of the app and argued other technological advancements also had pushback.
One supporter wrote: “I'm not opposed. How is it different from passing a grandparent's writings, photos, & lore down to the children.”
With another adding: “I love it! These hypocrites spew all this moral superiority, telling us how we get to remember people we love, condemning anything they don’t understand as if they know what’s wrong.”
UNILAD has contacted 2wai for comment.