Microsoft developing a ‘chat bot’ that could imitate dead friends and relatives

Microsoft is developing software that is intended in some cases to replicate the personalities of deceased individuals, according to a newly revealed patent.

The patent seeks protection of proprietary information of a “conversational chat bot of a specific person.”

The “specific person,” the company writes in the patent, “may correspond to a past or present entity … such as a friend, a relative, an acquaintance, a celebrity, a fictional character, a historical entity, etc.”

The company said “social data,” potentially drawn from social media, may be used to help build the counterfeit personality of the chat bot.

The company says that “voice fonts” may also be used to develop synthetic digital voices of emulated individuals.