➤ A digital afterlife: How artificial intelligence is redefining death, memory and immortality by Patrick van Esch and Yuanyuan (Gina) Cui
What happens to our stuff after we die? Not our physical stuff, but our virtual stuff? In an article by the Milwaukee Independent, reporters explore the idea of our digital footprints and what happens to our social media accounts when we’re no longer around. We’ve seen this being employed with legacy accounts on places like Facebook, being able to assign others to log into our social media after we’re long gone. But now, there are systems that can take your data and turn you into a chat-bot that your loved ones can communicate with.
In Germany, courts ruled that Facebook had to give a deceased person’s family access to their account, saying that digital accounts should be treated as inheritable property, like a bank account or house. But there are still plenty of challenges. For example, what if a digital clone of you says or does something online that you would never have said or done in real life? Who is responsible for what your AI version does?
➤ we could have been good friends, my grandmother and i. by Ayan Artan
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