We can clone you wholesale: Boffins build ML agents that respond like specific people

Computer scientists have devised a technique for making AI models behave like specific people. The researchers from Stanford University, Northwestern University, the University of Washington, and Google DeepMind describe their work in a pre-print paper titled "Generative Agent Simulations of 1,000 People." The US-based …

[Mark #255]

poor odds

So it's a D&D game where every turn you roll a D6, and if you roll a 1, some random person gets to decide what "you" would do.

I wouldn't want that in a game, let alone anything important enough in real life that had my name attached to it.

[Eclectic Man]

Re: poor odds

"I'm a personality prototype.

You can tell can't you?"*

OTOH, I do have a brain the size of a planet, so it's not all bad.

I'll get my coat, it's the one with a strong Brownian motion producer in the pocket.

*HHGTTG, Marvin the 'paranoid android'. But it applies to oh so many, many, alleged 'people' I've met.

[Bebu sa Ware]

I thought this AI insanity was already scraping the bottom of the barrel and then...

"We anticipate that within our lifetimes it may become common practice for people to create a custom AI agent to interact with [...] the [...] world after death"

Technological necromancy? What a ghastly, even sacrilegious idea!

Requiescat in pace - less likely if the deceased's AI simulacrum is still abroad in the land of the living.

Would we require the technological equivalent of a wooden stake and interment at crossroads to keep the dead from haunting the living?

I can imagine that the data from pre-employment psychometric tests that are apparently de rigueur in many large companies could be used to construct these models without the explicit consent of the candidate.

[abend0c4]

Re: I thought this AI insanity was already scraping the bottom of the barrel and then...

Would we require the technological equivalent of a wooden stake and interment at crossroads

Given Google's involvement, I think you can rely on their return to the cemetery in fairly short order.

I don't think there's much harm in someone communicating with facsimiles of the dead if it comforts them, just as long as they accept it's only a facsimile. And, in that regard, I suspect the uncharacteristic tendency of their "loved one" to remind them of the bargains on offer today at various sponsoring merchants will keep them on the right side of reality.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: I thought this AI insanity was already scraping the bottom of the barrel and then...

And, in that regard, I suspect the uncharacteristic tendency of their "loved one" to remind them of the bargains on offer today at various sponsoring merchants will keep them on the right side of reality.

I can very easily envisage a deceased wife continuing to order shoes.

[Alan Brown]

Re: I thought this AI insanity was already scraping the bottom of the barrel and then...

poorly fitting ones...

[Groo The Wanderer]

Re: I thought this AI insanity was already scraping the bottom of the barrel and then...

Unfortunately, the people who want to speak to simulations of the deceased are also those who most want to believe that it worked, and their long-lost one is back again in some form from beyond the grave. Just look at the number of people who believe in pseudo-science like Astrology or Tarot Card Readings... can you imagine giving them a unique AI "based on the stars?" They'd suck it up like drooling toddlers.

[cyberdemon]

Re: I thought this AI insanity was already scraping the bottom of the barrel and then...

> Would we require the technological equivalent of a wooden stake and interment at crossroads to keep the dead from haunting the living?

Good God, what a horrible thought I just had.

Could you imagine if Donald Trump were to make an AI model of himself and declare that it would be president for ever after his death? Maybe it has already happened

Of course, it would be plugged in to the surveillance networks and have command of the killer robots that patrol the streets.

Obey, citizen. The Donald is Watching You

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I thought this AI insanity was already scraping the bottom of the barrel and then...

Once we have AI people praying to the AI Jesus, I'm out of here.

[katrinab]

Re: I thought this AI insanity was already scraping the bottom of the barrel and then...

It has already happened

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/nov/21/deus-in-machina-swiss-church-installs-ai-powered-jesus

[Ken G]

Re: I thought this AI insanity was already scraping the bottom of the barrel and then...

I enjoyed Caprica. Why not unleash a set of AI avatars on the world, then put them in (giant killer) robot bodies?

[Mentat74]

Interact with the world after death...

So I can have them make me an avatar that can tell my entire family to go fark themselves after I'm dead ?

Sign me up !

[averageidiot]

What is wrong with these people...

Please highlight the actual human beings thinking this shit up.

[b0llchit]

click - Lights on

click - High beams on

looking...looking harder...no actual living beings found or detected.

[Snowy]

After they sack you.

They can spin up an AI version of you and get all your work for free.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: After they sack you.

Why the joke alert?

[Snowy]

Re: After they sack you.

I was feeling generous :)

[Will Godfrey]

Just when you think it can't get worse

See title (and icon).

[Paul Crawford]

Re: Just when you think it can't get worse

Genuine People Personality has come to pass...

[b0llchit]

Re: Just when you think it can't get worse

I'm still waiting for my doors to have GPP.

[Inventor of the Marmite Laser]

Re: Just when you think it can't get worse

Pleased to be of service.

[Alan Brown]

Re: Just when you think it can't get worse

Could be worse - could be elevators

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: Just when you think it can't get worse

ARTHUR: What? Who said that?

VENTILATION SYSTEM: The Ventilation System. You had a go at me yesterday.

ARTHUR: Yes, because you keep filling the air with cheap perfume.

VENTILATION SYSTEM: You like scented air: it’s fresh and invigorating.

ARTHUR: No I do not.

[Paul Herber]

Sounds ghastly.

[Nuno]

Perfect

Now just ask the AI those 5 questions for password retrieval and we are good to go

[Howard Sway]

Why be boring old me?

Instead of these tedious old psychometric tests, why not offer a set of dials which allow you to dial up the personality attributes that you find more desirable to create a more appealing avatar without having to stop being a grumpy old git in real life? This will also allow you the option to create avatars for your annoying neighbours and dreadful boss where you can dial up the slavering psychopath and creepy pervert attributes and set them loose on the internet for a good laugh.

[heyrick]

Re: Why be boring old me?

The boring old me would rather interact with fictional people (in the pages of a book) than real ones. Traumatic events in my life are when a book I really enjoy finishes and I'll never know what happened to those characters. Real people? Meh, overrated.

Thankfully I have no connections, nobody who would want a digital me. Because as it's for their benefit they'd probably tweak the settings to make me an outgoing extrovert. How utterly ghastly. My inner goth would be appalled.

[heyrick]

create a custom AI agent to interact with loved ones and/or the broader world after death

Eternal You, Transcendence, probably a dozen episodes of Black Mirror...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: create a custom AI agent to interact with loved ones and/or the broader world after death

Why not before death, too? Saves a lot of hassle and effort, doesn' it?

[Richard 12]

"Retake the survey"

Hang on, that means the system was 85% accurate at regurgitating its prompt.

Or I suppose the right parts of the prompt for each question.

Far from "genuine people personalities", it's just able to pick out the bit of the prompt that applies to the question.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

VAR

Let's see these boffins replicate assistant referees at football matches and be at those matches to standby the decisions of the AI assistant referees to defend the result to the football officials and more importantly the football supporters at the match.

At the moment, there is a fair amount of disagreement out there about the decisions by the Video Assistant Referees...

[Paul Herber]

Re: VAR

Football? Football? On which site do you think you are commenting? This is El-Reg. Nobody here knows a thing about football!

[An_Old_Dog]

1000 Privacy-Clueless Morons

They've managed to create chatbots which quasi-recreate the responses of 1000 privacy-clueless morons willing to answer the dossier-like, open-ended question, "Tell me the story of your life – from your childhood, to education, to family and relationships, and to any major life events you may have had."

It's not what I'd call a win.

[O'Reg Inalsin]

Shallow questions

Elicit shallow answers. But put real people in a challenging situation that brings out the best in them and you'll see the difference.

[Ken G]

Re: Shallow questions

Yes, an AI chatbot isn't going to headbutt you then run away.

[HuBo]

There's an old saying in Tennessee ...

Fool me once ... you can't get fooled again! (or video from getty images canada)

And so, here, if we look at the results of GSS regression on p.36+ (of the article linked under "pre-print paper"), it seems that (p-value) the Generative Agent can't reliably predict your Age if it is between 18 and 34, or 65 and more, nor can it predict your Political Ideology if you are any sort of Conservative, neither your Race nor Ethnicity unless you are Black or African American, nor your Income whatever that might be ... (if I understand well, which is debatable ... !)

Earlier, on pages 31 to 34, we also find that the Agent has a hard time replicating one's wlthblks, parsol, kidssol, spanking, discaffw, discaffm, and xmarsex for some reason, not to mention the negatively correlated polabuse/y and usewww*! Still (p.34), it's great at figuring out your crucial dwclown, zodiac, and sex*!

With such major advance, it seems fair to paraphrase Louis Armstrong's brother Neil, and consider this to be "one small step for [the RotM], one giant leap [to conclusions] for [boffins]", IMHO! _{(except for my cavalier misinterpretations, of course!)}

[TheMaskedMan]

Hmm, I recall seeing mention of some AI thingy that participates in a zoom call on your behalf - you provide the voice from a congenial location, and it draws a life-like image of you sat at your desk, lip synced to what your saying. Hook that up to one of these things, give it a realistic sounding voice and you're good to go.

I don't find this particularly creepy, but I can't see it being particularly useful, either. At least, not in its current form - approximately nobody is going to want a virtual me, for example. Maybe, instead of replicating an individual, it could be used to give home assistants a personality - less Star Trek Computer, more Orac. And I could see applications in the virtual girl / boy friend markets, sex robots etc.

All of these things are coming (especially the sex robots), so I guess we're going to have to get used to them.

[yetanotheraoc]

"All of these things are coming (especially the sex robots)"

I see what you did there.

[Groo The Wanderer]

You know, they could clone politicians easily with current "AI" technology because absolutely NO actual intelligence is required...

[tehstu]

A tip of the hat

... for the PKD reference in the headline. I'm sure he'd have a thing or two to say about this current state of affairs.

[CountCadaver]

Re: A tip of the hat

Definitely - I'd also wager Marshall McLuhan would have a fair bit to say also (the medium is the message), hell I'd even toss in Hunter S Thompson if we are practicing necromancy.

Restricted to the living - William Gibson would probably have an interesting take

[Anonymous Coward]

We Can Rule You Wholesale

When dragons belch and hippos flee...

[Emir Al Weeq]

Welcome to Bigtime TV

So this sort of tech is no longer 20 Minutes Into The Future.

[sabroni]

People aren't constant

Catch me on a good day I'm fucking delightful, catch me on a bad day I can be surly and uncommuncative.

"Boffins build ML agents that show they don't understand humans" more like.

[Roger Kynaston]

so ...

We will have 1000 AI BOFH in the systems team and another 1000 PFY on the helldesk.

I know I am a grumpy old git who has been in this business too long but AI (or the bits of it that get all the news) is determined to eat itself. I know that teams where I work are hoping to develop LLMs that are super good at spotting pre-cancerous cell development and I can imagine that scanning pictures of the cosmos to find planets will also be well served by these toys but not the crap that MS, Google et al seem to be interested in.

With the talking to dead people bit I think of Rimmer so another poor use case.

[collinsl]

Re: so ...

If you're in trouble he will save the day

He's brave and he's fearless come what may

Without him the mission would go astray

He's Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer!

Without him life would be much grimmer

He's handsome, trim, and no one's slimmer

He will never need a zimmer!

[Paul Herber]

Re: so ...

I foresee an AI to help you choose your new top-of-the-range kitchen appliances ...

let's call it Brains for Smeg.