A Russian programmer has managed an incredible manipulation: resuscitating her best friend who has lost her life. Of course, it was not a question of physically reviving this person, but of resuscitating him in the form of an artificial intelligence which speaks to him as his friend could have done, or almost.
Eugenia Kuyda is not just a programmer. She is the co-founder of a start-up called Luka specializing in artificial intelligence. The person concerned benefited from a favorable position as well as unlimited resources in order to concretize her project which consisted in bringing back to life her best friend in part, Roman Mazurenko (see photo at the top of the article), a Russian entrepreneur who found the died in November 2015.
“It was the first death for me. I don’t know how to react, so as quickly as I could, I buried everything I felt so I wouldn’t suffer anymore. Almost six months later, I can tell you that it is not going away” explains the programmer in remarks relayed by the OddityCentral site.
The artificial intelligence, created in the form of a chatbot named @Roman received a large amount of information from Eugenia Kuyda. The latter submitted press articles, thousands of text messages and a good number of photos to him, which he was able to assimilate through a deep learning process designed from the company’s model. Luka.
This manipulation has revived a debate that has divided the scientific community for some time: that of knowing whether or not it is necessary, in some way, to transfer the consciousness of man to the machine. The question arises especially at the level of the definition of human conscience and ethics concerning this kind of application.
According to Eugenia Kuyda, @Roman represents a solid base, but whose progress is slow to be able to affirm the development of a consciousness similar to that of his friend. The fact remains that former relatives have communicated with the chatbot, such as the mother of Roman Mazurenko, delighted to be able to remember her son in this way, but also to learn things that the latter did not tell her. For his father, the experience is too painful and he disapproves, simply because certain points remind him that he is dealing with an artificial intelligence.
Finally, anyone can chat with @Roman by downloading the Luka app available on iOS.
Sources: OddityCentral – UberGizmo