Updated February 12th, 2020 at 17:22 IST

Korean show uses Artificial Intelligence to reunite mother with dead daughter

A Korean television show, 'Meeting You' is using artificial intelligence to help the living people reunite with the resurrected dead friends or family members.

Reported by: Aanchal Nigam
| Image:self
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A Korean television show is using artificial intelligence to help the living people reunite with the resurrected dead friends or family members. The show called Meeting You has used technology to help cope up with the grief of losing someone to death. Just recently it helped a mother, Jang Ji-sung reunified with her seven-year-old daughter, Nayeon with complete touch-sensitive gloves and audio. 

The show reportedly recounted the entire story of the instance when the family lost Nayeon from an unnamed disease in 2016. Meeting You allowed the mother to spend time with her daughter, they were shown playing and talking. The two were also able to touch each other and the girl even reassured her mother that she was no longer in pain. It was this experience was reportedly deemed beneficial by the mother even though the experts have warned about the limits of carrying out a 'radical psychological experiment' on television for the purpose of entertainment. 

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Mother wore a VR headset

Jang wore a Vive virtual reality (VR) headset and can be seen transported into a garden where Nayeon was seen standing and smiling in a bright purple dress. The mother can be heard saying that she missed her while stroking the digital replica of her daughter. According to international reports, the Korean company Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) worked on designing the daughter's face, body, and voice to be as close to reality as it could be. 

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The artificial Nayeon even asked her mother where she had been and if she had missed her daughter. Initially, Jang was doubtful of touching the digital replica of her daughter but then the 'child' urged the mother to hold her hand. The experience was emotional as Jang started crying when the two held hands in the artificially created garden. Even her husband and other daughter and son who was watching the entire event from a distance started shedding tears. After the end of the journey, the seven-year-old laid down saying she was tired and bid her goodbye. 

International reports have also stated that Jang still wears the ashes of her daughter in the charm around her neck and also credited the documentary for helping people who have lost someone close to them. It had been three years since her daughter died, and after the digital experience she wrote in a blog that she should 'love her more than miss her'. However, Dr Blay Whitby, philosopher and technology ethicist at the University of Sussex told an international news outlet that that Korean show has sparked 'worrying ethical issues'. 

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Published February 12th, 2020 at 17:22 IST