Alexa needs just a minute of spoken audio to convincingly mimic a voice.
“For some people, it’s not creepy at all.
In fact, it can be rather touching.”
Jan Antonin Kolar / Unsplash
And it’s quite a touching moment.
It’s hard not to feel human emotions when granny starts reading.
“Humans struggle with mortality, especially in Western culture.
Annie Spratt / Unsplash
“Deepfakes use the latest technology to create a new death mask of a deceased loved one.
But a memento mori can be both comforting and creepy.
A family member’s friend is dead, yet you’re able to still hear them speaking.
It doesn’t help that Alexa has a history of odd, and sometimes terrifying, behavior.
One can only wonder how you might feel if Alexa pulled the same tricks in grandma’s voice.
“Such technology could also be dangerous and destructive.
That’s just in the context of Alexa.
Then again, given how easy it is to spread lies on Facebook, perhaps not.
Amazon has not said whether this feature is coming to Alexa or if it is just a technology demo.
I kind of hope it does.
And if the tech for deep fakes is readily available, why not use it to comfort ourselves?
