Momento Mori for AI

There was a group of software developers who lost a dear friend. They decided to create and train a chatbot [that was a big part of the software they develop anyway] based on the enormous collection of data, chats, emails, and other correspondence that they had of their deceased friend. They basically crafted a learning AI of their friend and this allowed them to continue to chat with him after he passed. Even his parents found it convincing and comforting.

I do not know what I think of that, but it does make you wonder about what will happen if the AI version becomes close friends with a human and then the human dies and they create a chatbot AI version of that human to keep the original AI company. And then there will be two AI’s who will continue to chat with each other forever . . .

Perhaps it is beautiful. Perhaps it makes me think of momento mori for AI. And so I will create a digital locket capturing that eerily human moment of the opening jaw.