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Caregivingly Yours's avatar

I did digital necromancy on my father who ran a blog for a long time before dying and tried to turn him into a text only chatbot (I considered going further as I have enough audio and video to do so). I didn't talk to it for very long and shared some responses with people who knew him. They liked the responses and thought they sounded like him.

I did not like the responses. It felt weird to have done, and I couldn't see many beneficial uses. I'm sure there's a few, but I agree with everything you said here after having performed the ritual once myself. I also take no offense as I did it out of curiosity, and am relatively confident my father would have done the same to his father, had he the opportunity.

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Kathy Fish's avatar

Perfectly stated. I'm so disappointed in Jim Acosta.

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L. Ashby's avatar

I couldn't force my eyes to read much past the understanding that a person who has died has been interviewed on television after AI was used to 're-generate' him.

I can't understand the parents of a boy who would allow this to happen. I don't understand their grief, and that part is OK -- we can't really understand anyone else's grief, but this grotesque act should be punishable by law.

I am deeply sorry for their loss. I am deeply repelled by this insane bullshit. Leave people alone after they are gone. We cannot truly speak for ourselves and we cannot truly defend ourselves past that point.

Indigenous people in Australia, for example, do not speak the names of people who have passed, or show their images. There are reasons for this. At least have some fucking respect for other people on the planet.

Acosta should be fired for this, and put into cube of silence for the rest of his days. That this 'interview' is utterly repugnant and disrespectful doesn't begin to describe it.

If we cannot own our deaths, we cannot begin to own our lives in order to live them as fully as we are able. Leave our deaths alone.

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Linda Cardillo's avatar

Well it is Jim Acosta

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Patricia J.L. 👻🧶🖊️'s avatar

Part of the grieving/healing process of losing someone is coming to terms with them being gone and not being able to talk to them again. I get the desire to want to talk to someone you loss one more time, but this feels like it will stunt so many people who won't learn to grieve and heal properly after a loss.

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Lausanne Davis Carpenter's avatar

Pet Cemetery.

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Adam Whybray's avatar

This idea was played for grim laughs about 10 years back by Tim Heidecker in 'On Cinema'. Back then, it seemed unimaginably grotesque, an obviously satirical, hideous idea...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fVQtmMN_ao

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Quiara Vasquez's avatar

IDK if you've seen/heard of this: https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-yorks-museum-of-jewish-heritage-is-using-ai-for-holocaust-education/ but you can go to a museum in New York and engage in ""conversation"" with, basically, Holocaust-Survivor-GPT. There's no generative AI involved, everyone here consented to have their likenesses used after they die, and it's heavily railroaded to deter trolls. Basically as ethical as you can get with this sort of thing. And it is *still* a stomach-churning grotesquerie.

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radicaledward's avatar

I had not heard of that and, yeah, I find it deeply repugnant.

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nobody's avatar

Manuel and Patricia Oliver,

I’m curious why you didn’t just film yourselves urinating and defecating on your son’s grave…???

Is there no limits to the lows that you people will stoop?

For less than 15 minutes of fame, you sold your dead son’s “image and likeness” to advocate for stripping the natural right of self-preservation from your fellow Homo Sapiens.

A high-tech ventriloquist act.

To call it shameful would be grossly inadequate.

I’m going with abhorrent and repellent.

No, we will not lay down our arms.

We are the PEOPLE.

We will not be assimilated.

👊🏻🗡️🙏🏻

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Lisa Kuznak's avatar

"And I hope Jim Acosta’s career ends because of this ghoulish parade, this public corpse fucking burlesque."

I hope so too. You're right on the mark with all of this. It's truly disgusting.

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