What if YOU were the next Alexa or Siri?
Image: Depositphotos enhanced by CogWorld
Imagine it is the year 2050 and that with your authorization, a quantum computer has stored and analyzed 20+ years of your daytime voice recordings. It can then create a Personal Assistant with your voice. At the basic level, it could reuse your voice and tell anyone the weather forecast, control smart home devices, play music, set reminders, and search for any information from the world wide web.
But what if, at an advanced level, it could answer any question the way you would respond. AI could analyze every word you have ever said, read, and written because smart devices (like Alexa or Google Assistant) could be enabled to listen and record in the background continuously. Artificial Intelligence could parse through your email archives, texts, and social media posts. AI parsers could also read every article and ebook, listen to every podcast, and watch every video that has shaped your thinking. It can predict with high accuracy whether you are likely to say yes or no or not respond or be elusive to a question based on your past responses. To have adoption and address privacy concerns, AI would have to remove all information related to security, passwords, and other personal data.
Who would want a digital version of you for a Personal Assistant, you might ask? Your close friends and family, for instance. We have digitally captured loved ones and celebrities through photographs and videos over the years. A digital recording of human personality is a potential next phase.
For decades, Hollywood movies have showcased digital humans appearing holographically. Some of these movies have been the imagination of futuristic minds and early predictors of technology. An AI-based personal assistant of humans is no longer just a Hollywood fantasy. Microsoft was recently awarded a patent for “Creating a conversational chatbot of a specific person” using this exact concept. The patent claims, “In some aspects, a voice font of the specific person may be generated using recordings and sound data related to the specific person.” It extends further to claim, “A 2D/3D model of the specific person may be generated using images, depth information, and/or video data associated with the specific person.” Deepfake technology can be leveraged to create photorealistic videos or holograms using photos and videos of the “data-rich” person. The technology could evolve further by leveraging video recordings through digital contact lenses or smart glasses worn by the specific person. In 2013, more than 200,000 people signed up for a one-way trip to Mars. By 2030, one can expect a larger number of people to sign up for a digital version of themselves meant to help others. In the future, entire Hollywood movies could be created with AI and VFX-generated characters based on anyone. You might have the option to order any movie featuring you in it.
A world with human-based AIs would offer exciting and limitless opportunities. We might have AI-celebrities similar to YouTube stars and Instagram Influencers. Humans might enjoy having entertainers, visionaries, or their grandparent as their next-gen Alexa or Siri. AI could help humans relive happy memories with loved ones. You might have the option to search, filter, and select humanized AI chatbots that match your preferences as your conversational partners. There could be an industry of interactive AIs ranging from psychologists and priests to engineers and doctors, all based on real humans. AI might enable us to interact with digital best friends we have never met. Some humans might also like to talk to a younger version of themselves. AIs of humans born hundreds of years apart could have interesting conversations with each other. Human-based AIs could translate between languages and could interact without regional limitations.
Every human could have ‘personalized’ personal assistants. They could go beyond seeking information to having meaningful conversations. Human-based AIs are not a matter of if; they are a matter of when.