Dead chat: Shanghai man uses AI technology to ‘resurrect’ late grandmother by creating virtual version to talk to, triggering controversy in China
- A 24-year-old man in Shanghai uses AI to ‘raise’ his grandmother from the dead and releases controversial recording of a conversation with ‘her’
- The creator says he shared a deep bond with his grandmother who raised him after his parents divorced when he was a small child
A Chinese man who used AI to “resurrect” his late grandmother has started a heated discussion about the application of new technology in the field.
A video with the audio of a conversation between the 24-year-old man, surnamed Wu, and the AI version of his dead grandmother went viral in recent weeks after Wu posted it online, news site cqcb.com reported.
“Grandma, my dad and I will go back to our hometown to celebrate the Lunar New Year with you this year,” Wu says in the recording. “My dad called you last time. What did you say to him?”
“I told him not to drink wine. Be thrifty and not play cards,” the AI grandmother replied.
“Yes, grandma, you should tell him to behave. My father, almost 50 years old, still drinks wine every day. He doesn’t even have any savings … grandma, what did you buy to celebrate the coming Lunar New Year?” Wu asked.
“I bought two bottles of edible oils. The farmers themselves pressed the oils. It smells fragrant, haha, 75 yuan (US$11) a bottle.”
During their conversation, the grandmother’s image looked attentive, as if listening, and her mouth moved when she spoke.
Wu said he shared a deep bond with his grandmother, who died from coronavirus in January, aged 84, as she raised him after his parents divorced.
When his grandmother fell ill, Wu returned from Shanghai, where he works as a visual art designer, to his hometown in southern China. He stayed at her bedside for 15 days but never got a chance to say goodbye as she remained in a coma until she died.
Struggling with his grandmother’s death, Wu had the idea of “resurrecting” her using AI technology.
He used image software and old photos to create a dynamic image of her. Wu then trained the AI to mimic her voice tone using recordings of his phone conversations with his grandmother before she died.
Wu also spent time talking with the AI chatbot ChatGPT to learn how to get AI to behave like his grandmother.
“I shared many details of my grandma’s life to ChatGPT, hoping it could understand my grandma’s family background and speech so it could communicate with me in my grandma’s tone,” Wu said.
“At present, ‘grandma’ can only have simple conversations. When my speech gets more complicated, the AI cannot understand,” he said.
Wu said his “resurrecting grandma” project is just for psychological comfort.
“But I feel good being able to look at grandma and talk more with her,” he said.
The story has attracted the attention of millions on mainland Chinese social media, with internet users split over Wu’s application of AI.
“I stand by him. But I dare not do it because it will make me sad,” one person said.
Another person said: “It is a way to relieve one’s sorrow. What this blogger did is meaningful. The company of an AI is still a form of companionship, after all.”
But another person disagreed and said: “A person should directly face reality. Birth and death are normal in life, aren’t they?”
“It is not the real her. Isn’t he afraid when talking with her? I think he should just let his grandma rest in peace and miss her in his heart,” another commenter said.
