author: Bart Swiatek
Microsoft Comes Up With Chat Bots Built on Copied Human Personality
Microsoft has registered a patent describing a technology that allows for creation of a chat bot based on a person's personality, voice and even appearance.
IN A NUTSHELL:
- Microsoft has patented a technology that enables us to train chat bots based on social networking data;
- The system is designed to create a bot that copies a person's personality, imitating them in terms of diction or style of expression;
- It will also be possible to generate a person's voice and image by the use of computer.
Last December, Microsoft registered a patent pulled straight from an episode of Black Mirror. The technology is supposed to enable "training" of chat bots (automatic chat machines used mainly by various companies) using the conversations of various people. This may allow for creation of bots based on a specific person - e.g. a deceased relative.
"Data from social networking websites can be used to create or modify a special index based on a person's personality. A special index can be used to train a chat bot for conversation and interaction, using the personality of a particular person," reads the documentation.
The system is to use both written conversations and other materials, including videos and sound files. The technology is to copy, among other things, diction, speech style, tone and how a person forms sentences. The system will also be able to make the bot chat sound like a given person. There will even be an option to create a two or three dimensional model based on photos and films.
"In some cases the voice of a particular person can be generated using related recordings and sound data. (...) A 2D/3D model of a specific person can be generated based on images, depth information and/or video data related to that person."
Interestingly, users will be given the opportunity to train their digital doppelganger themselves. Admittedly, the idea sounds amazing, but also more than just a little bit disturbing. You can imagine numerous applications for such technology and some of them really send a chill up your spine.