Sure, we all love the ease and convenience of this new, digital dimension that exists right beside our literal, real-life world.
This is the parallel universe where we’ve shoved all of our fiscal errands and our shopping. We do our research there. We read reviews of movies and books from a device that lives in our pockets.
And while it’s certainly nice to not have to ever step foot into a bank again, there are certainly some worrisome possibilities developing within this algorithmically-driven world…and Microsoft appears to be pushing the envelope on creepy.
Microsoft has been granted a patent that would allow the company to make a chatbot using the personal information of deceased people.
The patent describes creating a bot based on the “images, voice data, social media posts, electronic messages”, and more personal information.
“The specific person [who the chat bot represents] may correspond to a past or present entity (or a version thereof), such as a friend, a relative, an acquaintance, a celebrity, a fictional character, a historical figure, a random entity etc”, it goes on to say.
“The specific person may also correspond to oneself (e.g., the user creating/training the chat bot,” Microsoft also describes – implying that living users could train a digital replacement in the event of their death.
What’s truly scary to think about is the possibility that social media companies, who likely own every bit of dialogue that you’ve ever had online, could, perhaps without your consent, create chatbots out of your personality in the not-so-distant future.
