Microsoft patents chatbot that would let you talk to dead people

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Posted at 1:56 PM, Jan 28, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-28 13:56:59-05

Microsoft sort of wants you to be able to talk to dead people.

According to a patent filed by the tech company, developers created a tool that could make it possible to have a virtual conversation via a chatbot with a "past or present entity ... such as a friend, a relative, an acquaintance, a celebrity, a fictional character, a historical figure."

According to the patent, the chatbot would use social data to mold a personality alongside a 3D model of its real-life counterpart using letters and images.

CNN reported that the information gathered would then train that chatbot to interact as that person.

If it sounds cool or creepy, Microsoft's general manager of AI programs Tim O'Brien said in a tweet last week that there is "no plan for this."

O'Brien pointed out that Microsoft filed the patent application in April 2017, which predates Artificial Intelligence ethical standards in place today.