Death - the End of Life?

Let me start with a simple pragmatic question - when do we cease to exist? The simple answer is, we cease to exist with our death. But, hang on, it is not that simple! I am not talking about the several theories and beliefs about whether death is the end of life. This is more about an alternative experience that the new artificial-intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, provides.

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Most of us are part of some social media groups like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, etc. These groups have helped us establish contacts with our long-lost school, college, and office mates. Though most members just forward texts, pictures, video messages, many are also active members commenting on others' posts, enriching the discussion... 

But often, the members don't meet each other physically because the people are spread across different towns, cities, or even countries. This means we are basically interacting with our friends online using our devices, rarely meeting them in person.  Under this scenario, when a member of the group passes away, we offer our heartfelt condolences and move on with our lives.

However, what if I can continue to take part in my group's activities as before, even after my departure from life, by commenting on other's posts, and contributing my own occasionally? That is, I have not ceased to exist, for all practical purposes!

This is an eventuality that the new generative AI (artificial intelligence) based tools, such as ChatGPT, bring to the table. 

Generative AI, of which ChatGPT is an example, wades through oceans of data to conjure up content - a comment to a post, an image, a poem, a recipe, or even a long post on a contemporary social or political issue - in seconds and upon a simple request. You can have ChatGPT respond to all your incoming messages on WhatsApp with the help of GitHub.

And in order to personalize the comments in my style, ChatGPT needs a massive amount of training data, using which (i) it understands what people in the group are saying and (ii) it knows what to say back.

This training data is effectively the massive data that WhatsApp has backed up for the group using which it deciphers what each member is saying, how I normally address my friends, what my typical comments would be, etc. and responds on my behalf in the group.

Another training data set available in my case is my blog post repository (www.howcanwematter.com), which contains my views on a variety of topics.  Using this ChatGPT can come up with a response even on a new topic that someone would have initiated in the group, in my typical style of writing, incorporating my outlooks, my prejudices, my judgements, and even my subtle nuances of irony and wit! 

So, back to my original question. Do I exist as far as my friends are concerned, as long as they continue to get my responses in the group even after I am gone? Well, this is no longer a simple question! And this could be the creepy and eerie future that we would be confronted with soon.

Friends, rest assured that I am alive and kicking after an open surgery to remove a blood clot in my leg artery and that this post is not an imaginary creation by ChatGPT!😃