Man Uses AI Technology to Bring His Grandmother Back to Life
A Chinese man has used AI technology to create an artificial intelligence (AI) version of his deceased grandmother. The man, whose surname is Wu, was devastated by the loss of his grandmother and decided to use Midjourney and ChatGPT to resurrect her.
Midjourney allowed Wu to upload several photos of his grandmother and use recordings of her voice to synthesize a wider vocabulary. He then trained ChatGPT to behave like his grandmother. The result was uploaded to the website D-ID, which created an immersive and human-like conversational AI experience.
“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 explains. However, he notes that the AI can only have simple conversations at present.
In a video posted online, Wu can be seen having a conversation with the AI version of his grandmother. The conversation is heartwarming and brings comfort to Wu.
Wu explained that he was unable to say goodbye to his grandmother before she passed away because she remained in a coma until she died. Creating the AI version of his grandmother was about finding psychological comfort for Wu. “I feel good being able to look at grandma and talk more with her,” he adds.
This type of AI technology is becoming increasingly popular. Earlier this year, a Korean company offered a similar service that allows people to talk to their deceased loved ones after collecting photos and video footage of them.
