Creating a realistic virtual copy of oneself

If I wanted to train an AI to create a reasonable facsimile of myself, so that my future children / grandchildren / great-grandchildren could interact with the virtual me long after I’m gone, where would be a good place to start? Should I write many essays about my thoughts, hopes, dreams, where I stand on certain topics, etc. ? Should I answer some very long questionnaire about anything and everything? Would yes/no/maybe questions help or would “on a scale of 1 to 10 where do you stand on…” type of questions be better?

Creating a virtual facsimile of yourself for future generations is a fascinating and ambitious project. To start, you’ll want to focus on gathering a variety of data that captures the many dimensions of your personality, thoughts, and experiences. Here’s how you could approach it:

1. Written Essays and Reflections:

Essays: Writing essays on key aspects of your life (values, beliefs, goals, memories, relationships) would give a lot of depth. You could also document your thoughts on specific topics like politics, technology, philosophy, or family.
Personal Narratives: Include stories about your childhood, career, successes, and failures. The more detailed the reflections, the more material there will be for the AI to capture your voice and thought processes.
Hopes, Dreams, and Regrets: These will allow the AI to understand how you think about the future, what you care deeply about, and even how you cope with disappointments or unfulfilled goals.

2. Answering Open-Ended Questions:

Deep and Broad Questions: Questions like “What are your core values?” “What defines happiness for you?” or “What has been your biggest challenge?” These help capture not just facts but also the reasoning behind your thoughts.
Topic-Based Writing: Cover a broad range of topics (family, work, hobbies, politics, love, failure, etc.). This gives the AI a spectrum of your thoughts and opinions across different domains.

3. Scale-Based and Yes/No Questions:

Usefulness: These could be helpful in capturing a quick snapshot of your preferences or emotional responses to specific scenarios. They would be less useful on their own but could help fill in certain gaps.
Example: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you value creativity over logic?” or “Do you believe in taking risks?” Such questions are good for quantifying your tendencies, but they lack the nuance and depth of full explanations.
Where to Use: These could be sprinkled throughout your essays or answers to give quick summaries, but they should complement—not replace—more detailed writing.

4. Audio and Video Recordings:

Voice and Mannerisms: To capture not just what you say, but how you say it, consider recording audio or video responses. This helps the AI model learn your speech patterns, tone, and how you react in conversation.
Interactive Conversations: Recording video of you answering questions spontaneously or even role-playing conversations can help simulate how you might respond in real-life dialogues.

5. Daily Journaling or Logs:

Keeping a daily journal of your thoughts, feelings, and experiences gives the AI more continuous data about how your mood and perspectives shift over time. This would help with capturing your evolving thought process.

6. Regular Questionnaires:

A comprehensive, evolving questionnaire covering various aspects of life could be very useful. This might include questions that ask for reflections on personal growth over time. You could update it annually to see how your perspectives shift.

7. Interacting with an AI-Powered Journal:

You could start feeding your thoughts into an AI-based journaling system that learns from your entries. Over time, the AI would begin to learn your tone, voice, and interests, making the eventual “virtual you” model more robust.

8. Interviews with Loved Ones:

Ask family members or close friends to describe you. Their perspectives could provide additional insights that help round out your personality for the AI, showing sides of yourself that might not come through in self-reflection alone.

What to Avoid:

Sole reliance on binary questions: These won’t capture the nuances of your personality.
Focusing only on facts: The goal is to provide your reasoning, feelings, and emotional responses to events and ideas.
Short answers: The richer your answers, the more the AI can learn about you.

Long-Term Maintenance:

You might want to periodically update your responses and essays as you grow and change. This will make your AI facsimile more accurate to who you are throughout your life, not just at one specific moment.

By combining essays, detailed reflections, interactive conversations, and scaled questionnaires, you can capture a fuller representation of who you are, which could be used to train an AI that can simulate your thoughts, preferences, and even some of your personality.

Training an AI to Mimic You: A Guide

Great idea! Creating a digital replica of yourself for future generations is a wonderful way to preserve your memory and connect with loved ones. Here are some steps to consider:

1. Data Collection

Personal Essays: This is an excellent starting point. Writing about your thoughts, feelings, and experiences will provide the AI with a deep understanding of your personality.
Detailed Questionnaires: Answering a comprehensive questionnaire can help capture specific details about your preferences, beliefs, and memories.
Audio and Video Recordings: These can provide invaluable information about your voice, mannerisms, and facial expressions.

2. Question Types

Open-ended Questions: These allow you to express your thoughts in detail. For example, “What is your most cherished memory?” or “How do you define happiness?”
Hypothetical Scenarios: These can reveal your values and decision-making processes. For instance, “If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?”
Rating Scales: These can help quantify your preferences and attitudes. For example, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is family to you?”

3. AI Platforms and Techniques

Natural Language Processing (NLP): This technology enables AI to understand and respond to human language.
Machine Learning: Algorithms can analyze your data and identify patterns to mimic your behavior.
Deep Learning: This advanced form of machine learning can create highly sophisticated models capable of generating human-like text and even images.

4. Ethical Considerations

Privacy: Ensure that your data is handled responsibly and securely.
Bias: Be aware of potential biases in the AI’s training data and algorithms.
Consent: If you plan to share your digital replica with others, obtain their consent.

Recommended Platforms and Tools:

Google AI: Offers various tools and resources for AI development.
OpenAI: Provides powerful language models like GPT-3 for creating AI chatbots and other applications.
Hugging Face: A platform for sharing and experimenting with machine learning models.

By following these guidelines and leveraging the latest AI technologies, you can create a compelling and authentic digital representation of yourself for future generations to enjoy.