At the recent Data Engineering Summit (DES 2024), hosted by AIM, 74-year-old leadership coach and entrepreneur Marshall Goldsmith spoke about Marshallgoldsmith.ai, an AI-powered chatbot built by Fractal Analytics.
The bot, built on GPT-3.5, converges all of Goldsmith’s teachings and expertise of over 47 years, paving the way for wisdom to become imperishable with the help of AI.
Wisdom Survives
“This is a legacy project for me. I’m 74 years old, so this is a way of being present, even when physically I’m no longer around,” said Goldsmith at DES '24. The AI-chatbot is probably the first AI life coach, but many have contemplated this idea for a while now.
Source: Linkedin
With a vast repository of available information that is unique to each personality, including their teachings, books published, public speeches, and many more, the AI-powered chatbots will be able to emulate the person as a digital avatar.
However, the concept is not brand new.
A few years ago, a bot named ‘Vishy-bot’ was introduced on online playing platform chess.com. It was trained on Indian chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand’s playing style and was designed to mimic Anand’s strengths and playing patterns.
Interestingly, when Anand played against Vishy-bot, the game ended in a draw. He even remarked, “I'm very impressed that my bot’s technique is as bad as mine. That's a kind of touch of authenticity right there.”
Bringing Back from the Ashes
Many historical figures have been recreated as AI chatbots. OpenAI’s GPT store enables the creation of customised chatbots based on any personality, offering a versatile platform for personalised interaction.
For instance, Winston AI, an AI assistant, imitates British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Likewise, Oppenheimer AI is an AI assistant inspired by the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Chatbots built on prominent leaders may be the first step, and building a visual avatar is the next.
Chatbots to Digital Avatars
Recently, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman created a virtual twin of himself and interviewed it. The deepfake was trained on Hoffman’s talking style with methods unique to him. Hoffman said the deepfake interview was an act of self-realisation “to see if conversing with an AI-generated version of myself can lead to self-reflection, new insights into my thought patterns, and deep truths”.
Digital avatars are now being increasingly implemented in various industries, even politics. Recently, Steve Endacott, an entrepreneur, who is the chair of an AI company Neural Voice, proposed to put himself as a candidate in the UK general election as the first AI MP.
‘AI Steve’ would answer any constituent’s concerns and questions using a rendition of Endacott’s voice and avatar.
Gaming and entertainment industry is also vigorously picking up the concept of digital avatars. At the recent Computex event, NVIDIA announced the general availability of NVIDIA ACE that allows one to create digital avatars. While this may not embody a living person’s attributes, it is probable in the future.
Not All are Receptive
It is possible that if AI chatbots are trained on personality figures before their passing, it is likely that you can train these models to imitate them to the last dot. However, the thought of preparing for a future where a deceased can be brought to life is not openly accepted.
Last year, Kissan AI founder Pratik Desai suggested regularly recording one's parents, elders, and loved ones. “With enough transcript data, new voice synthesis and video models, there is a 100% chance that they will live with you forever even after leaving their physical body,” he said.
However, the idea was met with a huge backlash, with people calling it a huge dependence on AI to mourn a loved one.
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