 |
|
|
|||||
Christopher Pelkey was shot and killed in a road range incident in 2021. On May 8, 2025, at the sentencing hearing for his killer, an AI video reconstruction of Pelkey delivered a victim impact statement. The trial judge reported being deeply moved by this performance and issued the maximum sentence for manslaughter. As part of the ceremonies to mark Israels 77th year of independence on April 30, 2025, officials had planned to host a concert featuring four iconic Israeli singers. All four had died years earlier. The plan was to conjure them using AI-generated sound and video. The dead performers were supposed to sing alongside Yardena Arazi, a famous and still very much alive artist. In the end Arazi pulled out, citing the political atmosphere, and the event didnt happen. In April, the BBC created a deepfake version of the famous mystery writer Agatha Christie to teach a maestro course on writing. Fake Agatha would instruct aspiring murder mystery authors and inspire their writing journey. The use of artificial intelligence to reanimate the dead for a variety of purposes is quickly gaining traction. Over the past few years, weve been studying the moral implications of AI at the Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and we find these AI reanimations to be morally problematic. Before we address the moral challenges the technology raises, its important to distinguish AI reanimations, or deepfakes, from so-called griefbots. Griefbots are chatbots trained on large swaths of data the dead leave behindsocial media posts, texts, emails, videos. These chatbots mimic how the departed used to communicate and are meant to make life easier for surviving relations. The deepfakes we are discussing here have other aims; they are meant to promote legal, political, and educational causes. Moral quandaries The first moral quandary the technology raises has to do with consent: Would the deceased have agreed to do what their likeness is doing? Would the dead Israeli singers have wanted to sing at an Independence ceremony organized by the nations current government? Would Pelkey, the road-rage victim, be comfortable with the script his family wrote for his avatar to recite? What would Christie think about her AI double teaching that class? The answers to these questions can only be deduced circumstantially, from examining the kinds of things the dead did and the views they expressed when alive. And one could ask if the answers even matter. If those in charge of the estates agree to the reanimations, isnt the question settled? After all, such trustees are the legal representatives of the departed. But putting aside the question of consent, a more fundamental question remains. What do these reanimations do to the legacy and reputation of the dead? Doesnt their reputation depend, to some extent, on the scarcity of appearance, on the fact that the dead cant show up anymore? Dying can have a salutary effect on the reputation of prominent people; it was good for John F. Kennedy, and it was good for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The fifth-century BC Athenian leader Pericles understood this well. In his famous Funeral Oration, delivered at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War, he asserts that a noble death can elevate ones reputation and wash away their petty misdeeds. That is because the dead are beyond reach and their mystique grows postmortem. Even extreme virtue will scarcely win you a reputation equal to that of the dead, he insists. Do AI reanimations devalue the currency of the dead by forcing them to keep popping up? Do they cheapen and destabilize their reputation by having them comment on events that happened long after their demise? In addition, these AI representations can be a powerful tool to influence audiences for political or legal purposes. Bringing back a popular dead singer to legitimize a political event and reanimating a dead victim to offer testimony are acts intended to sway an audiences judgment. Its one thing to channel a Churchill or a Roosevelt during a political speech by quoting them or even trying to sound like them. Its another thing to have them speak alongside you. The potential of harnessing nostalgia is supercharged by this technology. Imagine, for example, what the Soviets, who literally worshipped Lenins dead body, would have done with a deepfake of their old icon. Good intentions You could argue that because these reanimations are uniquely engaging, they can be used for virtuous purposes. Consider a reanimated Martin Luther King Jr. speaking to our currently polarized and divided nation, urging moderation and unity. Wouldnt that be grand? Or what about a reanimated Mordechai Anielewicz, the commander of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, speaking at the trial of a Holocaust denier like David Irving? But do we know what MLK would have thought about our current political divisions? Do we know what Anielewicz would have thought about restrictions on pernicious speech? Does bravely campaigning for civil rights mean we should call upon the digital ghost of King to comment on the impact of populism? Does fearlessly fighting the Nazis mean we should dredge up the AI shadow of an old hero to comment on free speech in the digital age? Even if the political projects these AI avatars served were consistent with the deceaseds views, the problem of manipulationof using the psychological power of deepfakes to appeal to emotionsremains. But what about enlisting AI Agatha Christie to teach a writing class? Deepfakes may indeed have salutary uses in educational settings. The likeness of Christie could make students more enthusiastic about writing. Fake Aristotle could improve the chances that students engage with his austere Nicomachean Ethics. AI Einstein could help those who ant to study physics get their heads around general relativity. But producing these fakes comes with a great deal of responsibility. After all, given how engaging they can be, its possible that the interactions with these representations will be all that students pay attention to, rather than serving as a gateway to exploring the subject further. Living on in the living In a poem written in memory of W.B. Yeats, W.H. Auden tells us that after the poets death Yeats became his admirers. His memory was scattered among a hundred cities, and his work subject to endless interpretation: The words of a dead man are modified in the guts of the living. The dead live on in the many ways we reinterpret their words and works. Auden did that to Yeats, and were doing it to Auden right here. Thats how people stay in touch with those who are gone. In the end, we believe that using technological prowess to concretely bring them back disrespects them and, perhaps more importantly, is an act of disrespect to ourselvesto our capacity to abstract, think, and imagine. Nir Eisikovits is a professor of philosophy and director of the Applied Ethics Center at UMass Boston. Daniel J. Feldman is a senior research fellow at the Applied Ethics Center at UMass Boston. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
Ever dream about work? Have nightmares? According to a survey by the mattress review site EachNight.com, nearly two-thirds of us have job-related dreams that cause us to wake up stressed out and worried. Instead of shrugging them off, you might want to take note. While no definitive answer exists on the meaning of dreams, notable scientists, including Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, believed they hold messages. Freud, for example, considered dreaming to be an expression of repressed or unconscious conflicts or desires, while Jung explained dreams as thoughts released by the subconscious, creating an internal dialogue. Modern research recently concluded that dreams are part of the brains data-dumping function, consolidating information it deems to be important. Dream interpreter Inbaal Honigman believes there is meaning in the dreams that you remember. It could be something super benign, or it could be more than that, she says. Honigman teamed up with JobLeads, an online job search platform, analyzing search data to find the most popular work-related dreams. Here are some of the most common, along with Honigmans take on what they could be trying to tell you. Being Late for Work Getting to work late is the most common work-related dream, according to the JobLeads research. This theme falls into the anxiety dream category. While being late for work isnt as high stakes as a dream about being late for a flight or wedding, Honigman says it still suggests that stress and pressure have entered your subconscious, creating feelings of being overwhelmed. To decipher this dream, you must get to its root. It could be that you feel insecure at work, because work is very harsh, Honigman says. It could be that you feel insecure due to low self-esteem. Its from the same dream school as being naked in the classroom. Anxiety is firing up your brain and sending you to the worst-case scenario. Losing Your Job The next most common work-related dream involves losing your job or being fired. Honigman says you need to consider the emotion to understand the meaning. Were you on any level relieved, because that would be very telling, she says. Or did you feel like you wouldn’t be able to manage afterwards? Dreaming about losing your job doesnt usually come out of the blue. Honigman says it could be related to surviving a recent layoff, knowing that the organization is facing difficulties, or experiencing difficult interactions with other staff members. This dream can arise if you feel unsupported at work or in your personal life, she says. While it doesn’t necessarily predict an actual firing, heed it as a warning. Its a subconscious signal urging you to address the pressures youre facing and seek clarity or support in your job. Getting a New Job Not all work-related dreams are stressful. The most common positive work dream involves getting a new job. According to Honigman, this can indicate a subconscious craving for change. While you dont necessarily need to leave your work environment, it could mean youre ready to seek out a fresh challenge or shift in responsibilities. [Positive dreams are] less common, not because people hate their jobs, but because theyre less notable and life changing, Honigman says. A happy work dream can create a ripple effect, though, boosting your mood and leaving you feeling more motivated, confident, and energized. Romance with a Coworker If you have a romantic dream that involves a coworker, you might wake up puzzled. Honigman says it doesnt necessarily mean that youre attracted to the person physically or romantically. Instead, it could indicate that you feel at home when youre at work, or that you admire the persons confidence, creativity, and work ethic. This dream can mean youre feeling very at ease, appreciated, and have some kind of excitement about going into work, Honigman explains. Or the dream could also signal a desire for greater harmony and cooperation within your professional relationships. What to Do With Your Dreams As much as possible, Honigman recommends journaling about your dreams each morning. If thats too difficult, share your dream with someone else. Writing it down or sharing it with someone makes you more likely to remember the story. Then, look at the emotions youre feeling in the dream. For example, if you dream about getting a new job because you started your own business, how did you feel when you woke up? For some people, it’s a sign of something they should be doing because they felt excited or proud, Honigman says. Someone else may wake up from that dream in abject horror. While the dream doesnt have to be identical, look for patterns that might indicate a situation that you haven’t resolved. Dreaming about being late to work again and again could mean that you have a work anxiety that needs to be addressed. How you fix it can have many different answers. Dreams are not instructions. Honigman says you should consider them to be more like indications, especially in the case of anxiety work dreams. They’re not there to tell you stuff you don’t know, she says. Look at dreams as food for thought and very precious insight into what goes on in your mind. It’s valuable information, part of a jigsaw puzzle, and not the whole picture. If nothing else, looking for meaning in dreams can be fun, like solving a riddle or connecting the dots. Any thoughts on what a dream about riding a giant cat to work might mean? (Asking for a friend.)
Category:
E-Commerce
The world envies Swiss chocolate, army knives, and now . . . interest rates? Swiss National Bank, Switzerlands central bank, moved interest rates to zero this week, a reduction of 25 basis points, and a notable detraction from other central banks around the world, such as the Federal Reserve in the U.S. and the Bank of England in the U.K. In a statement, the Swiss National Bank said that the move was made in relation to declining inflation worriesand that its expecting the economies to buckle under the volatility created, in part, due to the Trump administrations trade policies. With today’s easing of monetary policy, the SNB is countering the lower inflationary pressure. The SNB will continue to monitor the situation closely and adjust its monetary policy if necessary, to ensure that inflation remains within the range consistent with price stability over the medium term, the statement read. The global economic outlook for the coming quarters has deteriorated due to the increase in trade tensions. In its baseline scenario, the SNB anticipates that growth in the global economy will weaken over the coming quarters. Inflation in the U.S. is likely to rise over the coming quarters. In Europe, by contrast, a further decrease in inflationary pressure is to be expected. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the Federal Reserves latest meeting wrapped up this week with no change in interest rates, despite pressure from the White House and others to lower them. Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed governors have been reluctant to do so, as inflation data still has not gotten close enough to its 2% target, and employment data has remained positive. Across the Atlantic, however, another European country, Norway, also cut rates this week. And some experts think that the Swiss could go even further, instituting negative interest rates at some point this year. There are risks that the SNB will go further in the future if inflationary pressures dont start to increase, and the lowest the policy rate could go is -0.75%, the rate it reached in the 2010s, Swiss National Banks Chairman Martin Schlegel told CNBC on Thursday. But what I can say is that going negative, we would not take this decision lightly.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||