Microsoft patents avatar technology to bring loved ones back from the dead

American tech giants Microsoft have reportedly issued a patent request for an AI tool that would create an avatar that would allow deceased individuals to continue to “take part” in digital conversations. A sophisticated kind of ‘chatbot’, the AI would be trained on videos and voice recordings of an individual, as well as any online communication given access to, such as social media posts, chat interactions and emails.

The patent, which was originally reported by Protocol, the technology news site, describes a chatbot that would

“converse and interact in the personality of a specific person” and be able to “correspond to a past or present entity [such as] a friend, a relative, an acquaintance, a celebrity, a fictional character [or] a historical figure”.

The chatbot would be activated via either a smartphone application or digital assistant such as Siri or Alexa. The chatbot would not only replicate a person’s voice or typing style. A 2D or even 3D digital ‘avatar’ of a person would also be created by the chatbot technology

 “using images, depth information and video data associated with the specific person”.

There is no guarantee Microsoft will ever actually release the technology in the form of a commercial product. Many patents are issued for technology innovations and ideas that are never actually brought to market. But even if Microsoft itself decides against further developing the technology, a number of U.S. start-ups are also working in a similar direction.

California-based HereAfter AI, is developing a technology system that will also create an avatar based on voice recordings that will be able to talk and reminisce in the persona of a deceased individual. The company has already attracted a waiting list of several hundred individuals who are being interviewed about their lives. These interviews are then edited down into specific sections and categorised by labels such as “falling in love”, or “a story about a stressful moment or experience”.

Based on the interviews, app users will be able to make requests like “Mum, tell me about how you and Dad met”, and the late mother’s voice would narrate the memories gathered through interviews and related to the topic.

Eterni.me is another start-up, again from California, also developing visual avatars of individuals. Their approach is based on, with express permission, collecting and processing social media profile data to create a realistic persona.

The concept of technology bringing late loved ones back to life, in a way, was brought to public attention in October, when U.S. rapper, producer and general media personality Kanye West presented his reality TV star wife Kim Kardashian with the 40^th birthday gift of a hologram of her late father. The hologram of Robert Kardashian, who died in 2003, told his daughter he continued to watch over her, as well as joking and even dancing, with his style recreated from old family footage.