In the 1960s, science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke devised a useful proverb: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is not distinguished by magic.” He was right, as evidenced by the almost mystical reverence with which people tend to describe tools of artificial intelligence such as chatgpt. We know it’s just software. We even understand how the program works. But because he is so advanced that he feels weird – as he likes knows me – we treat it with respect and a little fear, as if it were a God and not a creation.
And, more and more, we turn to artificial intelligence to answer all kinds of questions and fulfill the kinds of desires that religion once solved. This is the subject of the new documentary “Eternal You” (Available upon order and directed by Hans Block and Moritz Rieswieck).
As the title suggests, “Eternal You” mainly deals with a very special use of artificial intelligence: giving users the illusion that they are talking to their dear loved ones. Large linguistic models trained in the deceased’s speech patterns, in the conversations logs, and much more can be created to imitate the way this person communicates so well that he feels sad as if crossing the border between life and death. These tools may be comforting, but they are also potentially a large business. One of the themes of the film calls it “capitalism of death”.
I first saw “Eternal You” a year ago during his festival, and when I recently won it again, I was scared when I realized how much it had changed in these 12 short months. We learned about – or just adopted wholesale – artificial intelligence friends and artificial intelligence partners. Our social media flows have now been flooded with “people” who are not people at all, and Meta has announced plans to systematically create them on their own platforms. The idea that we had to make a lot of money to let us chat with an imitation of a dead man seemed a little bit of room a year ago, but I’m almost sure now that I was wrong.
The issues of “Eternal You” range from mourners to skeptical to software creators. Some people like experience. Others find it deeply alarming. But what is more interesting are the questions that encourage the documentary: not if it is moral to try to talk to the dead, but if it is moral for a software company to sell this “skill”. As Sherry Turkle notes in the film, the distinguished sociologist, artificial intelligence is a “excellent device that knows how to fool you to believe that there is there there.”
“Eternal You” is not really about overcoming death, as it turns out. In a wide and somewhat adventurous way, it is the despair of people to find meaning in life where and how companies are rushing to fill this gap and inspire almost religious dedication, even to professionals who make tools. But it’s also like a warning: This is not your favorite person at all from the other end – and it is not even magical.
