Plenty of horror movies have been made about resurrecting loved ones, and it’s really only a matter of time before it fully shifts from seances and backyard cemeteries (semataries?) to artificial intelligence. And leading the way…is the widower of Suzanne Somers, who is reconnecting with his late wife via AI.
The legacy of Suzanne Somers – who passed away in 2023 – will certainly live on in the world of entertainment and endorsements, but her husband, Alan Hamel, is taking it to an entirely different level. As he told People, “Obviously, Suzanne was greatly loved, not only by her family, but by millions of people. One of the projects that we have coming up is a really interesting project, the Suzanne AI Twin.” He even showcased a demo earlier this year. To him, “It was Suzanne. And I asked her a few questions and she answered them, and it blew me and everybody else away. When you look at the finished one next to the real Suzanne, you can’t tell the difference. It’s amazing. And I mean, I’ve been with Suzanne for 55 years, so I know what her face looks like, and when I just look at the two of them side by side, I really can’t tell which one is the real and which one is the AI.”
According to Hamil, the AI Suzanne Somers has been trained on numerous interviews and books written by the actress in an effort to match her patterns and mannerisms. And the way Hamil tells it, the project began even when Somers was still alive, saying she had a hand in the endeavor. As he put it, “She said, ‘I think it’ll be very interesting and we’ll provide a service to my fans and to people who have been reading my books who really want and need information about their health.’ She said, ‘Let’s do it.’ So that’s the reason we did it. And so I love being able to fulfill her wish.”
Even still, yes, it is genuinely disturbing on an entirely new level. This isn’t something (yes, something, not someone) of the Tilly Norwood variety; this feels like a form of technological witchcraft, a dangerous move in the wrong direction as far as how we use artificial intelligence.
What do you make of the late Suzanne Somers being turned into an AI version of herself? Does such a project have a purpose or is it going too far?
