I wish I could remember when it was that I found myself listening to a piece about this man who had created a digital version of his own father. Keep in mind, this was years before we had the AI projects online for us to play with, long before AI was even the focus of most conversations regarding tech.

The man being interviewed is discussing his motivations, and how he worked out the kinks to make such a thing a reality. As far as I remember, he had a software version of his father running on his home PC, and he interacted with it on the daily–Effectively chatting with dad was part of his routine.

To do this, of course, he had to spend countless hours feeding this algorithm. Things his dad had done, said and of course written. Interestingly enough, and very important to the story, is the fact that his father did not have a giant online footprint. Being someone from a past generation almost always equates to this being the case, but that didn’t stop this dedicated son’s efforts to recreate his father’s mind.

This man’s dad was a teacher, a music professor who had written some short essays about his passion, about music teaching and what have you. This too was important for feeding the algorithm a mental profile, if you will, as to be convincing enough for it to actually communicate like the father it was intending to emulate.

If we think of today though, and how far the technology has moved in this direction, what this man did all those years ago hardly seems difficult.

With this in mind, I decided to query kimi.ai– One of the many AI projects launched by China in the attempt of taking the lead in this field.

I asked one question:

Kimi, I have a blog that I've been updating for about 8 years. I've written thousands of posts and comments. Do you think it's possible for an AI to read and analyze everything I've ever said and basically create a digital version of me?

Kimmi’s reply:

Creating a digital version of you based on your blog posts and comments is an intriguing idea, and while it's theoretically possible, there are several important considerations and limitations to keep in mind:

Technical Feasibility

1. Data Collection: An AI would need access to all your blog posts and comments. This involves scraping or exporting the data from your blog platform, which can be complex depending on the platform's structure and accessibility.
2. Data Processing: Once collected, the data would need to be processed and cleaned to ensure it's in a format suitable for analysis. This involves removing any irrelevant information, handling duplicates, and organizing the data chronologically or thematically.
3. Language Models: Advanced language models like GPT-4 or similar can analyze large volumes of text to understand patterns, themes, and writing styles. These models can generate text that mimics your writing style based on the data they've been trained on.

Ethical Considerations

1. Privacy: Sharing your personal data, especially over such a long period, raises significant privacy concerns. You would need to ensure that any AI system used respects your privacy and complies with data protection laws.
2. Consent: If your blog includes interactions with other people (e.g., comments), you would need to consider their consent and privacy as well.
3. Misrepresentation: There's a risk that an AI might misrepresent your views or generate content that doesn't fully capture your nuances and context. Ensuring accuracy and authenticity is crucial.

Practical Limitations

1. Complexity of Human Thought: Human thoughts and emotions are incredibly complex and multifaceted. While an AI can mimic writing style and generate text based on patterns, it may struggle to fully capture the depth and context of your experiences and thoughts.
2. Evolution Over Time: People change over time, and your views and writing style may have evolved significantly over the eight years of your blog. An AI would need to account for these changes to create an accurate representation.
3. Contextual Understanding: AI models may not fully understand the context of your posts, especially if they reference personal experiences, cultural events, or specific moments in time. This could lead to misunderstandings or inaccuracies in the generated content.

Potential Approaches

1. Personalized Language Model: You could train a personalized language model on your blog data. This would involve fine-tuning a pre-trained model like GPT-4 on your specific corpus of text. This approach can capture your writing style and generate content that mimics your voice.
2. Thematic Analysis: Use AI tools to analyze themes and topics in your blog. This can help identify recurring subjects and provide insights into your interests and perspectives over time.
3. Interactive AI Assistant: Create an AI assistant that can answer questions or generate content based on your blog data. This assistant could be designed to engage with readers in a way that reflects your style and personality.

Conclusion

While it's technically possible to use AI to create a digital representation of your blog persona, it's important to approach this with caution and consideration for ethical and practical limitations. If you decide to proceed, ensure that you have robust privacy measures in place and that the AI-generated content is reviewed and validated for accuracy and authenticity.

Is this the future?

Some months ago now, I began writing a long philosophical piece on immortality--a difficult topic, dear to my heart. However, I may have missed an opportunity to add these new possibilities to the already complex recipe.

Listen; I'm not dismissing the ethical concerns, not really. But, what I am considering is the fact that a lot of people, driven by the realization that they too have an expiration date, will probably create effectively immortal versions of themselves.

A digital version of MenO, what a concept...

Let me ask you this:

Would you do it?

MenO