Featured Image Credit: Du Forsvinder Aldrig
Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Technology
Callum Jones
A woman who created an AI clone of her deceased husband was left searching for answers after the clone told her he had been unfaithful.
Stephan Martinussen was diagnosed with terminal cancer in early 2023, and he was no longer with us just a year later. Prior to his passing, Stephan and his wife, Katrine Martinussen, embarked on a ambitious project to create a digital, AI version of Stephan that could be about after he had died.
Their journey, which is documented in You Will Never Disappear, saw Stephan personally record hours of audio and video clips to feed into the system and build a model.
The Dane spoke about his childhood, some of his treasured memories, as well as political beliefs, which allowed an AI clone to be created.
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Working with Anders Hasle Nielsen, CEO of the AI company Fraia, a digital version of Stephan was created soon after his death.
Katrine admitted in the documentary she misses her husband 'terribly', and appealed directly to Stephan, saying: "You have to come back."
The model created by the AI experts was extremely convincing and brought Katrine a lot of comfort during an extremely difficult time. Katrine decided to test the limits of the technology however, and this is where some limitations of AI were highlighted.
"She asked the AI Stephan: 'did you ever betray me?' And she actually went a long way in that direction," Nielsen told the Telegraph.
When AI Stephan was pushed, he ultimately conceded he had cheated on her. The news devastated Katrine, so she went after more answers and asked the clone who Stephan had cheated with.
AI Stephan said it was one of Stephan's work colleagues, but when she investigated the situation, she realized it could not be true.
So, while there may be some drawbacks, Nielsen is hoping to further develop his tech in the years to come.
"If you think social media can suck you into a world, it is nothing compared to this," he added to the Telegraph.
"I can feel it in myself when I talk with my AI; how it accesses our feelings. I can get angry, I can actually begin to say to it: ‘You’re a f------ idiot. You don’t understand anything.’”
The Telegraph notes the AI creator knows more research is 'urgently' needed in the area in the months and the years to come.
So, AI clones of deceased relatives could be a thing for the future...