Qingming Festival is a festival for people to remember their ancestors and sacrifice. Nowadays, with the advancement and development of technology, missing relatives is no longer a cold thought, and more and more people are "resurrecting" their relatives through AI and digital human technology.
In recent months, the "resurrection" of loved ones by AI has become a hot topic. The practice of AI "resurrecting" loved ones brings positive meaning to people in remembering their loved ones. It not only helps to ease the grief of a loved one after the death of a loved one, but also helps to fill or relieve the regret left by the death of a loved one.
Although the AI "resurrection" of relatives technology satisfies people's feelings of missing their deceased relatives to a certain extent, the ensuing chaos of "resurrection" such as poor quality and false price cannot be ignored.
For example, the uneven effect of "resurrection" is a major problem faced by AI resurrection technology. Due to factors such as technical level, data source quality, and algorithm differences, the effect of different AI resurrections may be very different.
Some resurrection effects may be a simple face swap or voice synthesis that does not truly restore the demeanor and emotions of the deceased, while others may be too mechanical and rigid to lack realism. This uneven effect not only affects the user experience, but can also lead to dissatisfaction and disappointment among family members.
For example, the degree of "resurrection" depends on the amount of money. Sina XR found that some merchants on an e-commerce platform used false low prices to attract traffic. For example, a merchant's "AI resurrection of relatives" service is priced at 20 yuan, but after communicating with the merchant's customer service, there is a difference between the actual price and the marked price. 20 yuan just makes the photo of the person move, if you add dubbing and voice cloning, it is another price.
In addition, the infringement of AI "resurrection" digital humans is also frequent. For example, "AI resurrects Coco Li" was ordered to stop infringing. So what should digital relatives with good AI "resurrection" look like, and where should AI "resurrect" relatives go?
01. Through life and death, AI "resurrects" loved ones
In the movie "The Wandering Earth 2", scientist Tu Hengyu used a quantum computer to "resurrect" his daughter Yaya, who died in a car accident, and gave her a digital life.
In fact, science fiction has long been reflected in reality. Nowadays, with the development of AI, digital humans and other technologies, remembering deceased relatives is no longer cold. In the current market, these technologies have been applied to the scene of "resurrecting" loved ones.
This is also the "resurrection" of relatives by AI, which has been frequently a hot topic in recent months. For example, Taiwanese musician Bao Xiaobai's daughter Rong Rongrong died of illness, which brought him deep grief. However, instead of indulging in grief, Bao Xiaobai chose a special way to commemorate and remember his daughter - using AI technology to "resurrect" her in the digital world.
According to reports, Bao Xiaobai used AI technology to successfully build a digital version of Inclusion by combining the voice, video and other materials before his death. This digital version of inclusion not only mimics the words and actions of inclusion, but is even capable of simple conversations and singing performances.
For Bao Xiaobai, this method undoubtedly gave him a chance to re-engage with his daughter, allowing him to alleviate the grief of losing her to some extent. At the same time, he also said that he hopes that in this way, more people can understand and pay attention to the application and potential of AI technology in the emotional field.
Another example is Tang Xiaoou, a scientist with a good reputation in the field of computer vision, whose death has undoubtedly brought huge losses to the artificial intelligence community. However, his spirit and influence did not disappear from this. With the help of advanced AI technology, SenseTime has successfully recreated Tang Xiaoou's image in the form of a digital human.
Tang Xiaoou, founder of SenseTime, appeared at the 2024 annual meeting of SenseTime
At the annual meeting, Tang Xiaoou's digital person appeared, with a familiar voice and a familiar smile, as if we had returned to the past. He went on to bring us a great talk show, with the same humor and wit as it was back then.
Not only that, but there are many cases of using AI to "resurrect" loved ones. For example, when a medical worker's father died of a rare disease, he used AI face-swapping technology to "resurrect" his father to ease his grandmother's longing for her son. The application of this technology not only allows families to visually see their loved ones again, but also alleviates their grief to some extent.
There is also a young girl who uses AI technology to "resurrect" her long-dead father, saving her father's video in her mobile phone. In the video, the father can blink, smile, and speak as if he had never left. The application of this technology allows the girl to "communicate" with her father again, thus relieving her longing.
02. Put on the coat of AI, and the degree of "resurrection" depends on the amount of money
It is not difficult to see that the practice of AI "resurrecting" loved ones brings positive meaning to people in remembering their loved ones. It helps to ease the grief after the death of a loved one and helps people to come out of the psychological shadows. For those who have lost a loved one, this technique can bring a sense of solace that allows them to reconnect with their loved ones to some extent.
AI "resurrection" services can also help fill or alleviate regret left behind by the death of a loved one. For those who, for various reasons, have not been able to spend time with their loved ones or have failed to fulfill their shared wishes, this technology can provide an opportunity to make up for those regrets. For example, people can recreate the image of their loved ones through AI technology, have a conversation with them, and even accomplish some unfinished things together.
Bao Xiaobai once said, "AI is a tool for sustenance, and it is also a way to express longing." Undoubtedly, the practice of AI "resurrecting" relatives is of great help to people, but it also faces chaotic problems, such as poor quality and false prices.
At present, the production fees of merchants under the banner of "AI resurrection of relatives" on the market are uneven, ranging from a few yuan to thousands of yuan or tens of thousands of yuan. Sina XR found on an e-commerce platform that the prices of some stores under the name of AI resurrection were false.
For example, a merchant's "AI resurrection of relatives" service is priced at 20 yuan, but after communicating with the merchant's customer service, there is a difference between the actual price and the marked price.
The merchant's customer service said, "You need to provide a photo of your face." 1. The price of the character is 20 yuan;2. The character moves + speaks 60 yuan (fixed Ai voice) can provide the text and speech content by yourself;3. The character moves + speaks + voice clone 100 yuan (you need to provide Mandarin audio by yourself) Edit what you want to say. ”
In other words, the price of 20 yuan is only to provide people with photos that can make people move, and if customers add services such as AI dubbing and voice cloning, it is another price. In fact, the situation does not only exist in this merchant, but also in the other two merchants randomly selected by Sina XR.
For example, one of the merchants said that if you provide a positive photo, you can choose to speak or not to speak, and if you don't speak, it will be 50 yuan, a total of 13 seconds. If you are talking, 10 yuan per second, 150 yuan to start, the premise is that there is no way to simulate the sound.
It is worth noting that price is only one aspect, more important is the quality. In several businesses consulted by Sina XR, the so-called AI "resurrection" of relatives is only a one-sided use of people to make photos of people move, and add voices.
There are even requirements for the sound matching, for example, some only support Mandarin cloning, and do not support dialect recognition. There are even some that only have fixed AI dubbing or require the user to dub by themselves, and do not support voice simulation and dialogue.
What is particularly noteworthy is that the quality of the finished product is relatively rough and not as fine as imagined. For example, the image quality is rough, the mouth shape does not exactly match the sound, and the picture is just 2D.
A professional told Sina XR that the AI "resurrection" relatives on the market with a price of about 100 yuan are mostly generative AI-driven digital humans, and the underlying technology is very simple. Its production tool is open-source, and you only need to fill in the required photos and audio to wait for the generation, and then send the video to the consumer after the generation.
At the same time, he also said that in fact, there are AI resurrections of relatives with a price of thousands of yuan, or even tens of thousands of yuan, but they still tend to generate generative AI to drive digital humans, drive digital humans through language, and generate videos. It has the disadvantages of high latency and slow reply to digital relatives in the process of dialogue with "resurrected" digital relatives, and at the same time, its 3D reproduction mostly uses Metahumans to "pinch faces", which is not high-fidelity and the digital relatives do not show emotions during the conversation.
03. Where to go?Focus on family affection and quality is the solution
It is not difficult to find that although the AI "resurrection" of relatives technology satisfies people's feelings of missing their deceased relatives to a certain extent, the ensuing quality chaos cannot be ignored, such as the above-mentioned chaos is mainly reflected in the uneven resurrection effect and poor consumer experience.
In fact, the uneven resurrection effect is a major problem faced by AI resurrection technology. Due to factors such as technical level, data source quality, and algorithm differences, the effect of different AI resurrections may be very different.
For example, some resurrection effects may be simple face swaps or voice synthesis that do not truly restore the demeanor and emotions of the deceased, while others may be too mechanical and rigid to lack realism. This uneven effect not only affects the user experience, but can also lead to dissatisfaction and disappointment among family members.
Recently, Sina XR found that from a project with the theme of "family inheritance" created by Xinyuan Zhilang (full name "Beijing Xinyuan Zhilang Network Technology Co., Ltd.") for C-end groups, you can get a glimpse of the form of good AI "resurrection" relatives.
As part of the project, the "AI 'resurrection' of relatives" created by Xinyuan Zhilang focuses more on family experience, space experience, hyper-photo experience, interactive experience, etc. The so-called spatial experience is that the loved one is in a certain space, and through the operation, a series of activities such as dialogue, walking, moving, viewing photo albums, etc.
Its AI-"resurrected" digital relatives have hyper-realistic 3D forms that allow for conversations in emotional situations. Different from the current digital relatives who are mostly half-bodyed, Xinyuan Zhilang has achieved full-body pose.
In addition, in the project, there is also a family ancestral hall space with social functions, where users can not only perform online sacrifices after entering, but also send "family circles", as well as a series of functions such as family albums and genealogies.
If we look at it purely from the perspective of "resurrecting" deceased digital relatives, to put it simply, Xinyuan Zhilang can sit on the digital relatives with realistic images, real-time dialogues under emotional outpouring, and spatial scenes.
In addition to the good or bad effects of "resurrection", the laws and regulations regarding the "resurrection" of relatives by AI are not perfect, which may lead to the occurrence of some abuses and infringements. For example, it may be a violation of the law to use the data of the deceased without the consent of the deceased's family to resurrect AI, or to use this technology to maliciously disseminate or spread rumors.
In addition, the socio-cultural aspects of this technology need to be carefully considered. Although AI resurrection technology satisfies people's emotional needs to a certain extent, over-reliance on this technology can lead to a sense of alienation from family and interpersonal relationships in real life.
First, it is necessary to conduct in-depth research and discussion at multiple levels such as ethics, law, and social culture, and clarify the scope and limitations of the use of technology.
Second, strengthen the formulation and implementation of relevant laws and regulations to ensure the healthy development of technology and comply with relevant regulations. At the same time, it is also necessary to strengthen public education and guidance to improve people's awareness and understanding of this technology, and avoid blind pursuit and over-reliance.