Posthumous AI and the Digital Confessional

Many people are stuck with their eyes fixed on the AI horizon and the believed-to-be-inevitable singularity when humans transcend their physical form into a world of digital bliss. Regardless of which side of the singularity debate you fall on, there are many stepping-stones ahead of this extreme that warrant recognition and discussion not in five or ten years, but today. Though we haven't cracked the general AI case, our soft efforts have already accomplished a lot: we've technically passed the Turing test, we carry on lengthy conversations with support-service chatbots with our banks, telcos, and others, and we allow recommendation engines to influence our food, movie, music, and dating habits. Like it or not, AI is not simply an emerging movement; it is already here in a big way and is infiltrating the most private parts of our lives and even deaths. The often-speculated sci-fi scenario of a former friend being recreated in part or whole due to personality or biologic information left behind has recently evolved past fiction and become a reality thanks to Eugenia Kuyda's AI startup, Luka.