The AI Clones Are Coming! But It’s Not All Bad
Influencers and physiotherapists are creating digital second selves.
Is that Deepak Chopra or his digital twin?
Photographer: Araya Doheny/Getty Images North AmericaMark Sewards, a British member of parliament in the northern city of Leeds, recently launched what he called the country’s first AI prototype of an MP. Cue the backlash. X users were the most vitriolic, calling Sewards “lazy” and branding the project “appalling.” The press sneered at his “weird” and “dithering” chatbot, complaining it couldn’t follow a Leeds accent.
Then again, most politicians dodge questions with robotic answers, and many wouldn’t make out the heavy twang of Northern England. “Me neighbour’s lad’s blocked’t ginnel at’t back wi an old settee and he won’t do owt about it,” a Guardian journalist asked Sewards’ bot at one point. The AI suggested they call the police to report an abandoned vehicle, which was a better answer than I would have given.