‘Oh hell no’: Thanks to AI, Alexa could soon speak in your dead relative’s voice

This latest technology feature isn’t sitting well with some netizens after Amazon announced its intelligent voice assistant, Alexa, is now capable of reproducing almost any human voice – including that of a deceased person – thanks to artificial intelligence (AI).

Technology developments are moving quickly and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is scaring many people, largely due to doomsday movies and novels.

One could easily reference Will Smith’s classic sci-fi 2004 film, I, Robot, in which US AI Robotics attempt to take over the world.

Fast forward to today, AI robots arent as advanced as they may seen in the film but many tech firms are moving closer and have developed features which demonstrate the future is near.

Voice assistant advancements

Alexa can sound like your dead relative

During the firm’s re: MARS conference in Las Vegas, Amazon caused a sensation with this new feature that can recreate the voice of a deceased person.

In the demonstration, a child is told the story of The Wizard of Oz by their deceased grandmother.

Following this request, Alexa’s synthesized voice gives way to the more human voice of a person known to the listener.

According to those in charge of the research program that led to this feat, less than a minute of recorded audio is enough to reproduce an approximate voice, thanks to advances in artificial intelligence.

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For the moment, the feature is still in the development stage and there is absolutely no indication that it will be available to users anytime soon.

Nevertheless, it opens up some wild possibilities, such as being able to talk to and ask questions from deceased loved ones.

The basic idea is, in fact, to be able to reproduce anyone’s voice from simple sound recordings.

Possible misuse

Here, it is members of the same family who are involved, but such a process could also lead to misuse.

Behind the idea of perpetuating the memory of a lost loved one, this technology raises many ethical questions, and that’s not to mention the potential shock of hearing the voice of a deceased relative speaking once again.

In a similar vein, find out how you can chat with William Shatner, even when he’s no longer alive.

Netizens flocked to Twitter to express their thoughts on the Alexa ‘dead’ feature:

Complied by Sandisiwe Mbhele, additional reporting by AFP