It’s not often that we need to provide a spoiler alert on these pages, but for those who struggle with the pub quiz question about which US Presidents have been assassinated, the answer is on page 49. Looking back at the lives of these assassinated Presidents, Abraham Lincoln is notable for his role in abolishing slavery, but he is also among the many noted individuals who have been resurrected from the dead by AI deep fake creators. Bringing an old photograph to life is now a common AI meme, but a new study says that turning a person’s voice, face, and life history into reusable raw material is ‘ethically explosive’. Tom Divon, an internet and technology researcher from Hebrew University, and Prof. Christian Pentzold of Leipzig University in Germany argue that AI ‘resurrections’ matter because the dead become ‘involuntary sources of data and profit.’ However, that’s just the ethical issue. The bigger problem is the blurred boundaries between memory and manipulation. It is already possible to create an interactive experience with someone to discuss their life, philosophy, and achievements, even if they have been dead for centuries. The concern is that these initiatives can have immense potential for weaponisation. Imagine resurrecting a Hitler-type character and circulating his ideology to new audiences. As we have already seen, it doesn’t take many generations before people forget the horrors of war. If the technology exists to bring back the voices of those who would turn the world upside down, the same manipulation can be applied to those close to us to bend our opinions. Take the recent meme of the current US President, using Lincoln’s voice while advocating for the reintroduction of slavery. Thankfully it’s just a meme. Isn’t it?
