Eterni.me is a startup launching out of MIT that claims with the help of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and personal information (memories, writings, photos, etc.) people will be able to interact with their departed loved ones.
ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post with Answer Key.
The team behind Eterni.me, with Marius Ursache (second from left, bottom row) and Tom Lee (bottom right). Courtesy Eterni.me
Excerpt: An unlively chat:.. with Eterni.me by Nidhi Subbaraman NBC News
“Life-logging is all the rage for today’s 20- 30- and 40-somethings. But what happens to all that digital data when they die?
One group of entrepreneurs thinks the secret to immortality lies in a digital time capsule of carefully curated memories and experiences — and all your Facebook likes — outfitted with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) curator to make sense of it all.
Digital Immortality. Photo- Bubblews.
Eterni.me, which invites users to “Simply Become Immortal” opened to the world at 1 p.m. U.S. ET on Wednesday, promising to deliver an AI-powered “Skype chat from the past,” for loved ones of a person that’s passed on. The website’s had 40,000 visitors as of noon on Thursday, 1,500 of which want to get regular updates by email.
Either it’s people thinking it’s creepy and don’t really buy it or they’re interested in learning more, Nicholas Lee, a Canadian entrepreneur and a member of the founding team told NBC News.
Right now we’re tying to solve a pretty pragmatic problem, Marius Ursache, a 36-year old from Romania who has founded one company, told NBC News. It’s the fear of not existing any more. This responds to that need.
The system doesn’t exist yet, but the idea is that a person can upload fragments of memories, photos, maybe even advice. Eterni.me will digest that to generate a virtual YOU, an avatar that emulates your personality and can interact with, and offer information and advice to your family and friends after you pass away, according to the description on the new website.
It’s as though you can Skype with someone who is dead.Photo- Motherboard.
Avatars that can serve as convincing stand-ins for people you know don’t yet exist, at least not unless the human’s talking from inside a telepresence robot. And Eterni.me’s founders are willing to give the tech some time to catch up…
Whether we’ll want to interact with an avatar representing a dead uncle is a question that remains. But, the seemingly wild idea could fit right in with the changing ways we’re grieving.
Using technology to mourn seems to be no worse than going to a real life grave site,Vicary told NBC News. People just seem to be doing it on a computer. She added that the added interactive nature of Eterni.me could prevent people from moving on, because the person is talking like they’re still alive, — but she’d need to study it to be sure.
The Eterni.me team will be pitching their concept to a room full of CEOs and investors tomorrow, as the MIT Entrepreneurship Development program winds down this week, and that’s when they’ll really know if they’re in business.”
ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post
Level: Intermediate -Advanced
Language Skills: Reading, writing, and speaking with vocabulary and grammar practice.
Time: Approximately 2 hours.
Materials: Student handouts (from this lesson) access to news article, and video.
Objective: Students will read and discuss the article with a focus on improving reading comprehension and learning new vocabulary. At the end of the lesson students will express their personal views on the topic through group work and writing.
I. Pre-Reading Activities
Stimulating background knowledge
Brainstorming
Directions: Place students in groups, ask students to think about what they already know about “life after death”. Next, have students look at the picture(s) in the text and generate ideas or words that may be connected to the article. Debrief as a class and list these ideas on the board. Students can use this great Brainstorming chart from Kootation.com.
II. While Reading Activities
Vocabulary
Word Inference
Directions: Students are to infer the meanings of the words in bold taken from the article. They may use a dictionary, thesaurus, and Word Chart by Freeology for assistance.
- Eterni.me invites users to become immortal.
- One group of entrepreneurs thinks the secret to immortality lies in a digital time capsule.
- Immortality is created with carefully curated memories and experiences.
- Some people think it’s creepy and don’t really buy it.
- People are still worried about leaving behind a legacy.
- Right now we’re tying to solve a pretty pragmatic problem,
- The idea is that a person can upload fragments of memories.
- Avatars serve as convincing stand-ins for people.
- Using technology to mourn seems to be no worse than going to a real life grave site.
- There are others who explicitly want to keep “digital memories” made by their loved ones.
Reading Comprehension
True /False/NA-Statements
Directions: Review the following statements from the reading. If a statement is true they mark it T. If the statement is not applicable, they mark it NA. If the statement is false they mark it F and provide the correct answer.
- Life-logging is all the rage for today’s 20-somethings.
- Eterni.me invites users to “Simply Become Immortal”.
- The website’s had 40 visitors as of noon on Thursday.
- Nicholas Lee is a dead person that has an avatar.
- According to Marius Ursache people have a fear of losing a loved one.
- One of the things that Eterni.me will do is to generate an avatar that emulates your personality.
- The target market for this application is 20-25-year-olds.
- Some people think this idea of talking to dead people is creepy.
- There are people who explicitly want to keep “digital memories” made by their loved ones.
- The team says many responses they’ve encountered have been positive.
Grammar Focus
Structure and Usage
Directions: The following groups of sentences are from the article. One of the sentences in each group contains a grammatical error. Students are to identify the sentence (1, 2, or 3 ) from each group that contains the grammatical error.
I.
- One group of entrepreneurs thinks the secret to immortality lied in a digital time capsule.
- There are carefully curated memories and experiences.
- Eterni.me invites users to become immortal.
II.
- The website’s had 40,000 visitors.
- The international team of 8 met in Cambridge.
- People are still worried about left behind a legacy.
III.
- Right now we’re tying to solve a pretty pragmatic problem,
- It’s the fear of no existing any more.
- The team is very sensitive about creating a useful product.
III. Post Reading Tasks
Reading Comprehension Check
WH-How Questions
Directions: Have students use the WH-question format to discuss or to write the main points from the article.
Who or What is the article about?
Where does the action/event take place?
When does the action/event take place?
Why did the action/event occur?
How did the action/event occur?
Discussion/Writing Exercise
Directions: Place students in groups and have them answer the following questions. Afterwards, have the groups share their thoughts as a class. To reinforce the ideas, students can write an essay on one of the following discussion topics.
- The article states, “The target market for this application is 30- to 35-year-olds, early adopters of technology who “leave a digital trail.” What is a digital trail?
- Do you think the concept of talking to loved ones in the “after-life” is a good idea? Provide reasons for your answers.
- In your opinion, what are the most important ideas in this article?
- Would you enlist the services of Eterni.me? Why or why not?