A bizarre case recently hit the headlines worldover when a girl in the United States, murdered in 2006, was resurrected as an AI chatbot — and her family had no idea!
Drew Crecente, the father of the deceased, woke up to a Google alert which soon transformed into an unnerving revelation. To his utter shock, he realised that an AI chatbot, created using his deceased daughter Jennifer Ann’s name and image, was in operation 18 years after her tragic death.
By the time Crecente discovered the bot, a counter on its profile showed it had already been used in at least 69 chats.
This particular chatbot was found on Character.ai, a platform where users can create their own AI “characters”. Ann’s name and her yearbook photo were used along with a description that called her as an “expert in journalism”.
Eventually, Character.ai removed Ann’s chatbot as a response to Brian’s post.
This particular incident, though traumatising for …