# Talking with the dead or living in the Cloud?



## Foxbat (Jan 25, 2021)

Microsoft have apparently filed for a patent regarding a chatbot based on dead people. 

From the article: Microsoft notes the chatbot would develop its target personality in several ways. The social data, consisting of social media posts, texts, voice messages, etc., would, in effect, be used to train the chatbot’s neural networks; this would enable it to speak like a specific individual. The bot would also have a “personality theme,” proportionately weighted by the social data.

A few years down the line, perhaps you could pay a fee prior to your death and have yourself digitally ‘sculpted’ from your social data and achieve a kind of digital immortality. Call me a cynic, but I think Microsoft is the kind of company that will do a little off-piste sculpting - perhaps getting the chatbot every now and then to say ‘buy Windows 15 and live in our very own heavenly Cloud forever.’









						Microsoft Patents Chatbot Capable of Simulating Dead People
					

Microsoft has filed a patent for a chatbot that learns how to mimic specific people, dead or alive, based in large part on their social data.




					nerdist.com


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## CupofJoe (Jan 25, 2021)

That is close to terrifying.
I think most people would pay extra to have their online persona pruned to be socially acceptable... all those long forgotten posts about Justin Bieber or supporting the loosing side in a political debate...
I'll be surprised if this is every any more of a thing than the hologram of her father that Kanye got Kim...


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## Toby Frost (Jan 25, 2021)

Nope, nope, nope and, just for the avoidance of doubt, nope.


Also, nope.


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## Foxbat (Jan 25, 2021)

If this bot ever becomes a reality, people may need new notices at their hospital beds: Do not resucitate and do not digitise.


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## Dave (Jan 25, 2021)

Foxbat said:


> Call me a cynic, but I think Microsoft is the kind of company that will do a little off-piste sculpting - perhaps getting the chatbot every now and then to say ‘buy Windows 15 and live in our very own heavenly Cloud forever.’


Microsoft made me change my password three times this week because it said I had "acted suspiciously" so I don't believe it really knows me well enough to make a copy of me 

What actually happened was that someone hosting a Microsoft Teams chat had his internet drop out while I was trying to join it. This meant I was sent around on a loop trying to join but not joining. That then lead to a password change that required App password changes for my iPhone, that weren't recognised because of Windows/Apple issues. Nothing suspicious just Microsoft's software being as **** as usual.

When I get to the gates of Heaven, I hope it's St Peter there and not Bill Gates, or the whole place is likely to crash.


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