Eternal You studies mankind’s seemingly eternal quest to defeat death through technology. It’s not medical technology which is explored here, however. It’s generative AI, designed to simulate lost loved ones. The documentary escalates its exploration in how it’s edited to reveal the fullness of what is currently possible. We first learn about text-based algorithms similar to ChatGPT, then voice-based services, and finally, companies which design full avatars of the deceased, some designed to be interacted with in a virtual-reality setting. Many of these are already fully on the market, which gives the documentary well-paced authenticity because most versions of the technologies featured here have a grieving human accompanying them, telling their story and explaining why they want or wanted to use said service.
In most cases, the companies behind these AI models feed the model data about the deceased through various sources: text, social media posts and information, voice recordings, etc. Then the chat, voice simulation, or avatar attempts to realistically interact with the grieving customer, so that the end goal is not just a collection of words, phrases, and interests which merely remind one of the deceased, but make it feel like the deceased is still there, as present as possible. This raises a plethora of moral, ethical, and intellectual questions which are addressed at each stop.
Many of the people behind the various technologies featured here are beyond passionate about them. They don’t just see the customer as a rube, or personal data as merely a market to be mined with no thought to the ethical considerations inherent in such mining. However, most of the tech entrepreneurs in this film are dealing with startups and smaller companies based on homegrown models. With many tech conglomerates applying for or already holding patents on generative AI technology as applied to deceased persons, it’s easy to conceive of a world in which very minimal ethical care is taken. Who has a right to my data after I’m gone? Call me old-fashioned, but I certainly don’t want anyone to create AI of me in my absence, no matter who it is. That debate unfolds many times over with various customers in the film.
Regardless of how we may feel personally about using such technology, the technology is here, and it’s unquestionably fascinating (and sometimes frightening) to witness. For example, when a text-based algorithm challenges one customer’s notion of where her deceased partner is from a theological perspective, we wonder what the edges and boundaries of generative AI really are, and if there even are any. Likewise, when a Korean woman interacts with a full virtual-reality avatar of her late daughter (on a reality show, no less), we’re perplexed as to what could be considered illusion or reality, based on the intensity of one’s grief.
It’s all very reminiscent of Spike Jonze’s Her, when the AI girlfriend in that film learns too quickly for her human partner and basically drifts away into the cyber-ether. We’re trying to make the ephemeral tangible when, as one expert in Eternal You rightly points out, we don’t even know what gives humans consciousness. How can we expect to replicate it when we still don’t know the fundamentals? In my view, the technology is going to go places we can only dream of, but we who are left behind will still be earthbound. | George Napper
Eternal You is now available on many video-on-demand platforms.