What if Abraham Lincoln could address Congress today? Or your great grandmother could help run the family business? Researchers and entrepreneurs are starting to ponder how artificial intelligence could create versions of people after their deaths--not only as static replicas for the benefit of their loved ones but as evolving digital entities that may steer companies or influence world events. Numerous startups are already anticipating growing demand for digital personas, including Replika, an app that learns to replicate a person in the form of a chatbot, and HereAfter AI, which records people's life stories and uses them to create a replica embedded in a smart speaker. Even Big Tech seems to acknowledge the potential: Microsoft Corp. recently patented a method of using chatbots to preserve historical figures and living people.

In recent presentations, I have been theorising about how advances in technology might change the threat landscape, and one such advance I think will lead to a much more fundamental change than any other. That technology is the field of artificial intelligence (AI). My original prediction of criminal co-opting of AI dates back to a panel I was on at IPExpo in London in 2017. At the time I was challenged by a journalist to give a clearer account of myself but my thoughts were very much in embryonic form. To tell you the truth, I had only articulated those thoughts when I was asked the question of "What keeps me up at night?" up on that stage.