AI "resurrection" in controversy: Do I have the right to refuse to be remade?
The impact of AI seems to be on the verge of life and death.
In the past, the way to remember the deceased was to sacrifice and sweep the grave, but now the emergence of AI "resurrection" relatives has made the connection between the living and the deceased even closer.
Through AI replication, we can clearly perceive that digital life may not be far away, and its possibilities are becoming more and more abundant - some people reproduce a childhood self and re-nurture themselves, and some people train their own digital clones to try to make it work for themselves.
However, there are still countless controversies behind these digital lives: is the person who uses AI to reproduce still the original person? Will death lose its meaning? Does the deceased have the right to refuse to reproduce, and is it infringing to use AI to "resurrect" public figures?
As the Qingming Festival approaches, The Paper's AI-focused column "Alignment Lab" tries to answer these questions through existing cases and expert interviews.
In addition to "resurrecting" loved ones, what are the possibilities for digital life?
With the rise of large language models represented by ChatGPT, it seems that it is more possible to reproduce a "life", and new solutions have emerged to many problems in the past.
For example, in the past, we could often see the topic of "re-nurturing ourselves" on social networks, but now there is an AI solution.
As early as the end of 2022, 26-year-old artist Michelle Huang recreated herself as a child with the help of GPT3, mentally and emotionally "re-nurturing" herself. She pulled out a diary with more than a decade of memories, extracted key memories that represented her personality and values, and asked GPT-3 to read the text and recreate Michelle Huang as a child.
"I told her that she was loved, cared for, and safe, and those were the things I had always wanted to hear, and it was as if I had gone back in time and given her a huge hug. Michelle Huang said on social media.
Also known as "inner child work," this approach is a psychotherapy in which the therapist "reconnects" with his or her past self and heals deep wounds.
The picture above is an AI-generated picture of Michelle Huang, and the picture below is Michelle Huang's interface with the AI version of herself when she was a child. Figure from X
Michelle Huang's reenactment of her own case is not unique. Netizen "Poetry and Starry Sky" mentioned that he trained himself with AI, imported a knowledge base about himself, and tried to let the digital clone work for him, but the experiment is still in its infancy.
He wrote in an article on social platforms that he believes that digital life is not only about image similarity, but more importantly, about the "alignment" of thinking. He believes that in the future, through brain-computer interfaces, individual memories, thoughts, thinking patterns, and knowledge will be continuously uploaded, and "the large model that has all my consciousness will begin to become a digital life in the real sense."
In addition to replicating oneself, it is also possible to communicate with deceased celebrities.
In 2023, the Musée d'Orsay "resurrects" Van Gogh based on 900 letters and biographies about him written in the 19th century. Visitors can talk to Van Gogh on digital screens, and the most popular question is: "Why did you commit suicide?"
Digital Van Gogh interface of the Musée d'Orsay. The picture comes from the Internet
However, the answer to such questions is subject to human intervention. In an interview with the media, the Musée d'Orsay staff said that the algorithm constantly improves its answers based on how the questions are formulated, and that now AI developers have learned to steer sensitive topics into more active conversations.
For example, when asked about suicide, the AI version of Van Gogh would reply: "Hold on to life, because even in the bleakest moments, there is always beauty and hope." ”
Most of the existing AI "resurrections" are just repeaters
In China, the more well-known digital life is the AI "resurrection" of loved ones, such as the musician Bao Xiaobai, who used AI to reproduce his daughter Tolerance, and he can interact with the AI version of Tolerance in real time on his mobile phone.
Bao Xiaobai told The Paper that although he knew that the other party was a robot, he was still satisfied. Bao Xiaobai believes that this makes up for her daughter's "youth that cannot be continued, and she can live beautifully in the digital world".
However, the effect of real-time interaction is not so easy to achieve, and most of the AI "resurrection" services on the market cannot meet people's imagination of digital life, and the existing technology is difficult to restore the personality and emotions of the deceased.
Li Zhiqi, a netizen who "resurrected" his grandfather, told The Paper that many AI "resurrection" relatives services on the market now only use AI face-swapping technology at best, and only a short face-swapping video is generated.
And even the current AI forks that introduce large language models are still quite far from real digital life.
Netizen Yu Jialin used AI to "resurrect" his grandfather, and after making up for the last goodbye, he never opened this AI model. In his opinion, the grandfather of the "resurrection" of the AI is not perfect in itself, and "he" has no memories and emotions, and he will not really empathize.
"[The model] seems to have some thinking ability, but it's not a real person after all, it doesn't understand who you are, it doesn't understand who you are, it just lists all the possibilities about your question, and then actively chooses an answer that you like to hear. Yu Jialin said in an interview with the media.
Although there are still various shortcomings of current AI "resurrection" technology, the desire to connect with the deceased has made many people willing to try this type of service.
Netizen @来疑沧海尽成空- When his grandfather passed away less than a month ago, he used his grandfather's photo to make a blinking dynamic effect. He admits that the effect is a little rough, but it is already comforting to him.
"It would be comforting to see that loved one I missed day and night reappear on the screen, to see him wink, to see him smile, to hear his voice and the tone of his voice. Netizen @来疑沧海尽成空- said.
Not everyone agrees with the move of using AI to recreate loved ones. Netizen @如是哟 thinks that this is a move to consume the deceased, "You may still be someone else's electronic pet after a few hundred years, even if you are close, there are ethical problems."
In addition, the reproduction of digital life may involve the infringement of personality rights such as portrait rights, reputation rights, and privacy rights.
Recently, some bloggers have used AI to "resurrect" stars such as Coco Li and Qiao Renliang in the name of warmth. Coco Li's mother and Qiao Renliang's father strongly condemned this, and Qiao Renliang's father told the Xiaoxiang Morning News reporter that the other party did not ask for their consent, "It was my niece who swiped the video and sent it to me, which is revealing the scar."
Lin Zihan, a researcher at the China Informatization 100 Association, told the reporter of the "Alignment Lab" column that resurrecting others without the consent of their families may involve the infringement of personality rights such as name rights, portrait rights, reputation rights and privacy rights, and their close relatives have the right to request the perpetrator to bear civil liability in accordance with the law. In addition, if it involves content with property rights and interests such as "digital inheritance", it may even constitute the crime of embezzlement if the public figure is resurrected for profit without the consent of the family.
What are the hidden concerns about the "resurrection" of AI?
Digital humans are sparking more discussions.
Behind the use of AI to reproduce the deceased is the proposition of how bereaved families face and resolve grief. He Li, an associate professor at the Department of Psychology at the Teachers College of Beijing Union University, who focuses on the field of bereavement and grief, said in an interview with the reporter of "Alignment Lab", "No matter what form of grief, the most essential is the pain of separation, and life and death are a gap that we cannot cross", and the essence of AI "resurrection" of relatives is to establish a continuous connection with the deceased relatives in the soul and alleviate the pain of separation.
He Li believes that this varies from person to person, and the key to maintaining contact with the deceased relatives or completely severing them is to see whether the living person has accepted the death of their loved ones and whether their social functions have been impaired.
If the above discussion is from the perspective of the living, how can the will of the deceased be guaranteed?
Lin Zihan said that generally speaking, digital heritage refers to the network rights and property left behind by natural persons after their death and can be inherited by individuals, such as our common game equipment or WeChat accounts.
The training data required for AI "resurrection" - photos, audio, video, and text works of the deceased - is a kind of digital heritage. Xiong Dingzhong, the chief partner of Qinglu Law Firm, believes that before the advent of AI technology, most people did not consider whether their records should be used by AI technology, and with the advent and development of AI technology, the disposal of this part of the estate should be regarded as a part that can be defined by the will.
"The will of the deceased (whether a child or not) comes first, and if there is no clear will, the heirs of these estates can use it as training data without infringing on the personality rights of the deceased. Xiong Dingzhong said.
Whether it is a replica of oneself or one's relatives, will the arrival of digital life mean that the way human beings look at death will change? Xiong Dingzhong believes that there will always be a lack of training data, and digital life is no longer the original human being.
"The development of medicine has only extended life so far, and the fear of death still exists, and although the development of technologies such as brain-computer interfaces and large language models has made real digital life more possible, and human beings seem to have some more ways to overcome the anxiety and pain of death, people must learn to look directly at the sun, and death is meaningful. He Li said.
The interviewee in the article, Li Zhiqi, is a pseudonym.