For centuries people have strived for immortality. We’ve searched for the right alchemy or biohacks to try to extend our physical being and many of us have pursued modest ways to build a legacy for our children. While this journey has inspired some of the great works of art and spirituality, the preservation of a person’s personality in an interactive form has been relatively limited until now. At this incredible moment, AI offers an ability to create a model of one’s personality that even a few years ago felt unachievable. While we cannot upload our minds to a computer, we can create a digital representation of ourselves that can imitate us to stunning detail. This experiment wields the power of AI to create a digital archive of yourself with intelligence like your own. 

To get started: train an AI on everything there is to know about you. Record an extended interview to document your personality, your voice, your mannerisms and likeness. Provide a timeline of your bio, photos, and samples of your writing to help the AI to really understand your personal story and inner voice. With the help of your digital avatar, create an artificial intelligence that mirrors your personality and your life. Interact with your digital self to better attune it to your traits and prepare it for a future when you are no longer around to tell your story. Take care of and update your avatar over the years. Share it with family and pass it on to preserve a digital afterlife. Hope that your family holds on to it for future generations so that many decades from now someone can interact with your “digital you” as close to the real you as possible. 

Another version of this is to use a similar process to revive an ancestor or a family member who has passed. While the ethical implications of this are fraught, one can use the artifacts of a deceased loved one to create an AI personality fueled by a lost person they love. Use this experience to have conversations with a loved one you deeply miss and want to remember. Alternatively, use this experience to transport yourself back further in time to construct a conversation with a distant ancestor. Revive the personality of a memorable person in your family tree through the writings and works they have passed down through the ages.