If you’re a science freak and you have some questions or just want to talk to the best of all times ‘Albert Einstein’, then there’s good news for you.
A ‘digital human company’ based in the US and New Zealand, Aflorithmic has come up with an interesting digital version of Einstein.
The idea of Einstein being alive today and people are asking him all sorts of questions, sounds fascinating. In today’s world, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that for AI, nothing is impossible. It’s interesting and dangerous at the same time.
Not only would we love to hear Einstein’s explanation of scientific concepts, but, his world views, his opinions on current events. What’s his political inclination, his favorite movie, maybe?
The synthesized voice of Einstein is recreated using AI voice cloning technology that draws audio recordings of the renowned physicist. The project is in collaboration with UneeQ, which is hosting is hosting the interactive chatbot version on their website.
Aflorithmic says that in the beginning this idea of digital Einstein is intended as a showcase. But, very soon, it will be practice in conversational social commerce.
Now, what can we make of this statement? Is it a fancy way of saying that historical figures will be soon selling us burgers and coke?
The company also believes it be a strong educational initiative, bring deceased-famous-genius figures back to life, no ‘artificial life’.
Interestingly, it’s not 100% artificial cloned voice, there’s something real about it. Wait, what? Yes, Aflorithmic worked with an actor to do voice modeling for the chatbot. And it was necessary to do so. Otherwise, how would it be possible for our Einstein to say recently developed words, like, you know, ‘selfie’?
In an interview with TechCrunch, Alforithmic’s COO Matt Lehmann said, “This is the next milestone in showcasing the technology to make conversational social commerce possible”
“There are still more than one flaws to iron out as well as tech challenges to overcome but overall we think this is a good way to show where this is moving to.” He added.
The company has given details of some technical abnormalities they’ve faced while preparing this complex software, on their blog.
When something controversial and complex like the AI-driven ‘digital Einstein’ is created, you can’t escape the ethics and laws governing it. It is understandable that historical figures aren’t around to ask ethical and political questions. However, if we do ask for the ‘digital versions’, then also some licensing rights may apply.
In the case of Einstein, according to Lehman, “His rights lie with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who is a partner in this project,”
“In fact, we actually didn’t clone Einstein’s voice as such but found inspiration in original recordings as well as in movies. The voice actor who helped us modeling his voice is a huge admirer himself and his performance captivated the character Einstein very well, we thought.”
As of now, the device which sounds like genius ‘Einstein’ is still a work in progress. The makers of the ‘Digital Einstein’ are quite clear with their intention of selling their creations for commercial purposes.
Creations like this are evident in the fact that Artificial Intelligence is going to take things forward at a much faster rate than we expect.
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