There is certainly a feeling of fascination mixed with foreboding when technology gets to this level. A new highly advanced AI allows you to chat with historical figures such as Albert Einstein, in an absolutely credible and above all educational way.
In fact, there already existed AI capable of simulating chats with deceased characters. The one that was most successful was definitely ChatGPT. One of the latest additions is an AI called Character.AIcreated by Daniel De Freitas e Noam Shazeertwo former Google researchers.
Character.AI: To chat about gravitational waves with Albert Einstein
Character.AI, similar to ChatGPT, draws on articles, news stories, books, and other digital sources to generate plausible responses from individuals (or personas) chosen by users. You can then talk about cinema with Alfred Hitchcock or politics with John F. Kennedy.
However, we must remember that nothing that the AI tells us is to be taken as academic truth. the AIs are programmed to provide information, but above all for entertainment and recreational purposes. So it’s not enough to chat about conspiracy theories with Kubrick to be able to go around and say: “Stanley confessed to me that he shot the moon landing!”. No, it doesn’t work like that. After all, the same AI website reads: “Everything the characters say is made up!”.
During a recent interview with the New York Times, the two creators of Character.AI explained: “These systems are not designed to reveal any truth. They are meant to offer a plausible conversation. Character.AI is useful for entertainment, emotional support, idea generation, and all kinds of creative uses.”
If you want to try Character.AI you can do it at this link. The use of the AI is free, but it is restricted to the English language only. Sorry, apparently Einstein’s AI was not fluent in Italian.