Conversational AI holds the key to creating synthetic interactions between humans and machines in the present and the future.

One of its applications is the resurrection chatbot, a tool that enables individuals to “speak with” deceased individuals.

While immortality is still an impossible dream for now, technology has seemingly cracked another unlikely wish harbored by millions around the world: interacting with a loved one who no longer exists. In recent years, many developers have dabbled with the idea of using chatbots for facilitating "conversations" with dead people. Conversational AI has made great strides in recent times, with marketing chatbots and smart assistants such as Alexa, Siri and Cortana getting more autonomous and cognitive by the day. "Resurrection chatbots," as such applications are referred to by many, extensively use NLG, NLP and machine learning to create or recreate synthetic conversations between humans and machines.

How NLG Resurrects the Dead

Machine learning, holograms, and NLG will play a big part in recreating an artificial persona that serves as the “digital reincarnation” of dead people. Machine learning models can be used to scan the digital history of such individuals on social media sites and other digital platforms to attain information about a deceased individual. Their social media posts, media files, text messages, voice recordings, and all other sources of related information can be scanned without violating their or their family’s privacy. Additional details, like educational records and health reports, also can be revisited to uncover specific traits of the individual.

Not everything about this exercise is cheerful, though. As you know, machine learning models improve with time since usable data keeps increasing as the chatbot interacts with the relatives and other close associates of the deceased. In this way, such applications may end up discovering the deepest, darkest secrets of an individual—something that they may not have wanted to be discovered.

What the Future May Hold

Bringing a deceased individual to life in a digital avatar will be incomplete without VR, the king of make-believe technologies. In the future, VR can be used to create simulations in which imaginary and deceased people are present. With the help of conversational AI and computer vision, individuals may be able to view dead people synthetically present in the digital realm. Users will just need VR headsets to experience this phenomenon. Recently, tech developers have floated the concept of employing VR for the purpose. The Amazon Prime original series “Upload” depicts the use of advanced, all-encompassing VR to give the deceased a “wonderful afterlife.”

While dismissing this entire piece as superfluous and without practical use, one needs to understand the sheer distress someone goes through when their close friends or relatives cease to exist. As you can see, NLG, AI, VR and computer vision can be useful tools to provide some much-needed solace to such people or families to help them get through the trauma.