Microsoft Patent An AI That Will Bring Back Your Dead Loved Ones As Chatbots

Microsoft have been granted a patent which details a method for creating a conversation with a specific person through a chatbot. The technology would allow you to talk to a “Past or present entity … such as a friend, a relative, an acquaintance, a celebrity, a fictional character, a historical figure,” according to the filing with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The potential of this move is almost exactly like the Black Mirror episode “Be Right Back”, where a young woman uses a service to collect data from her dead husband to create a chatbot and eventually a robot.

However it seems Microsoft don’t haven’t intention of pursuing the technology at the moment. Tim O’Brien, Microsoft’s general manager of AI programs, said in a tweet on that he “confirmed that there’s no plan for this.”

Who knows who or when we might see this Black Mirror episode come to life, but for those interested in it Microsoft seems to be a good bet.