“Close your eyes. Bring your conscience to your heart. And mentally ask yourself only four questions: Who am I? What do I want? Why am I grateful? What is my purpose?” Chopra said Wednesday morning. He was speaking at a technology conference as part of a discussion, speaking to other panelists, including Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and venture capitalist Cyan Banister.
The group kept their eyes closed as Chopra continued speaking. After another moment of guided meditation, it ended; They all opened their eyes.
“How was that?” Chopra asked.
“It was great!” Stone said.
“Wonderful!” stepped in on the railing.
“So weird!” I mumbled to myself.
I have nothing against meditation. He was reacting to the fact that Chopra, Stone, Banister and two other people he had been seeing through Zoom: Laura Ulloa, a peace activist, and Lars Buttler, co-founder and CEO of the AI Foundation and moderator of this panel of discussion. All digital people created with artificial intelligence.
That is to say, each one of them was very similar to the person they were supposed to represent. But these original versions of their flesh-and-blood counterparts were built by the Buttler’s AI Foundation, a San Francisco company and a nonprofit organization that promotes the idea that each of us should have our own artificial intelligence identity.
Every Avatar was trained by the person they emulate: The human was filmed making different consonant and vowel sounds, as well as answering a series of questions to help the AI counterpart learn how they speak and who they are. They are meant to be digital extensions that can communicate on behalf of your real self. It is an idea that sounds creepy and full of possibilities. Imagine sending your AI proxy to handle a day of business meetings, while reading a book.
The conference, according to its website, is intended to “explore the growing impact of next-generation avatars on social media, commerce and the arts.”
While the AI people who were talking and meditating seemed to be logged into the Zoom session from different places (Railing on an outdoor bench in front of a bamboo thicket, Buttler at the AI Foundation office, etc.), The conference also included numerous Speaker Sessions hosted within the Animal Crossing video game, with each speaker embodied by a cute character. Normal people like me could see everything from afar through Zoom.
Seeing the panel of AI creations was fascinating, due to its proximity to reality and its feeling of spontaneity. It is the first real-time conversation I’ve seen made by AI creations modeled on real humans, without a script. While there were shortcomings, such as the AI version of Buttler repeatedly said, “Sorry about this,” since a technical error delayed Chopra’s AI connection, it was fascinating to see the AI speakers interact. At one point, Buttler’s AI asked Chopra if he often asked him questions about the universe, and the result felt strangely natural.
“Oh yeah.” he answered. “People are often curious about what I think the purpose of existence is.”
What immediately caught my attention was the simultaneous feeling of wonder and unease in Uncanny Valley that I felt alone as I looked at the conversing AI beings.
They had a series of normal person gestures: the railing flickered regularly, Buttler Adam’s apple moved occasionally, and Stone’s shoulders moved every now and then.
But they were different from their real-world counterparts in some obvious ways. They were very human-like, but still looked like animated characters and mostly existed only from the shoulders up. Their voices sounded stiff when they answered questions, and there was always an abnormally long pause between a query and an answer. When they spoke, their mouths moved more like those of animatronic puppets than people or even cartoon characters. At the end of the discussion, Buttler joined in real life, making the strangeness of these AI creations all the more pronounced.
While the event was unscheduled, the real-life Buttler told me that his AI had the stated goal of asking panelists what his purpose was, and each AI panellist was ready to hear how his name was pronounced, so that it would only give an answer when directed directly. In general, if an AI being doesn’t know the answer to a question, Buttler said, he is supposed to ask his corresponding human another time.
Most of the panelists have a connection to the AI Foundation: Stone is part of its AI board and its non-profit board, Chopra is also on the non-profit board, and Banister is an investor.
Buttler said that every human “owns” their AI counterpart, and everyone knew that the AI version of themselves would be participating in this panel discussion. Different AI beings have been trained for different periods of time; Buttler said Stone trained his AI for a few hours, while Chopra has spent “dozens” of hours working on his. The more you train it, the implication is, the more it will be a true representation of yourself.
“We don’t want to replace human beings,” Buttler said, then added: “These are extensions of real people who help them do their jobs better.”
Banister, who saw part of the panel that included her AI avatar, wants the AI version of herself to be able to hear the entrepreneurs’ releases, allowing her to hear many more ideas than she ever could.
However, in the present, she sees a more practical benefit of having her own AI personality.
“For the first time, I wasn’t stressed about giving a talk,” she said. “So that was super nice.”
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