Passions: Creepy or cute?

Alexa’s new “mimic anyone’s voice” feature aims at making memories of deceased loved ones and exes last. Two tech creators evaluate the pros and cons

“We can now keep loved ones alive in our memories”

The latest season of Black Mirror had an episode based on AI which used Miley Cyrus’ voice

By Shlok Srivastava

Shlok says thatthe idea of preserving a person through their speech can bring a positive impact on those who are still grieving

Technology has since time immemorial been at the forefront of building connections. Whether it was the invention of email, texts or WhatsApp, social media, and more, technology has played a crucial role in enabling connections. In fact, during the pandemic being connected to people via these modes of communication is what kept people going and motivated. In recent years, AI has further innovated space and become a part of our daily lives and Alexa is one such example.

Alexa was already pretty much a part of every household—a part of every member’s daily routine. The new feature wherein it will be possible to have a virtual conversation with a deceased loved one is for me, personally, exciting news. It gives you an opportunity to keep the loved one alive in your memories. Sometimes, just being able to hear someone who you have lost gives you a quick motivation to get through a rainy day. The idea of preserving a person through their speech can bring a positive impact on those who are still grieving. It is also a great way to introduce children to their long-lost great-grandparents and help them understand the family lineage. It can be an amazing emotional support and experience if used wisely.

Every new technology will have opinions on its efficiency and security, but I believe that if the intention is positive, like in Alexa’s case then it can be a game changer move for the AI industry.

Shlok Srivastava aka Tech Burner is a tech content creator with 8.83m subscribers on YouTube and 1.8m IG followers.

“There are better ways to immortalise loved ones”

By Tejas Patil

Tejas says having tech that imitates the voices of our loved ones can create dependence or assurance among people who‘ve lost loved ones

When I heard about this upcoming feature the first thing that popped in my head was the series Black Mirror, which highlights the negative aspects of technology in our day-to-day life. I won’t argue against the fact that it warms our hearts to hear the voices of our deceased loved ones. But the fact that moving on itself is a hard task, having a technology that imitates the voices of our loved ones is surely going to bring a lot of uncertain memories alive.

We must allow those wounded hearts to mend since only time can mend broken hearts and hearing their voices all the time could be debilitating and have detrimental psychological effects. This can create a need for dependence or assurance among the dependents of the deceased. While losing a loved one is a painful experience, there may be a better way to immortalize their likeness, which doesn’t include any Alexa.

There’s also a big possibility of the device being misused, even more, if one uses the Alexa app to customise the answers. They’ll basically use the device to say almost anything. Digital life is augmenting human capacities and disrupting eons-old human activity. AI being able to recreate the entire vocal spectrum is impressive enough and has a lot of applications but keeping the passed ones amongst us through voice imitations is not something I would want to do.

Tejas Patil aka Elementec is a tech content creator, entrepreneur and TED Speaker with 961k IG followers and 127k YouTube subscribers.

From HT Brunch, July 9, 2022

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