Can A.I make you immortal?

I watched a documentary, curious in the question myself:

In the documentary, Ann, the director, goes on a quest to discover if AI can make you immortal. She learns of a way to make an AI version of herself that her daughters and grandchildren will be able to ask questions to after she has passed. She does through providing pictures of herself and pictures and knowledge of her family so that the AI can replicate it.

However, it also discusses how it is too late to “save” her father, who is frail and in a retirement home with dementia and is shown throughout the documentary asking Ann the same questions and showing confusion over what time of his life he is in. He’s no longer really there in the way he was before, so Ann can’t “save” the man who once existed. He has no knowledge that can be recreated.

In fact, the documentary, while it reveals that her dad can’t be saved early on, comes back to him in the end, with a scene where Ann and her uncle try to get him to remember things through a photo album.

So…can AI make you immortal? What a strange ending for a documentary that seems to argue that it can. Unless I am misinterpreting what the point of the documentary was, a better ending would have been the scene where Ann’s daughters get to meet and speak with Ann’s A.I. to show the benefits of A.I. to immortality. Maybe the documentary just wanted to end on an emotional note (which worked – I actually almost cried).

But, rather, I think this ending reflects Ann’s “disappointment”. There is no reason to include this scene when it comes to the thesis. We already know her father can’t be saved. We don’t learn anything new from this scene. All it does is reemphasize that he can’t be saved.

I put “disappointment” in quotes because I don’t think she is disappointed in the AI system of herself – she actually seemed to think it was very cool. But she’s disappointed because she….failed. A.I….cannot make you immortal.

The documentary begins like this:

“The ancient philosopher Seneca said, “The day of our death is is the birth of eternity.” Once you die, you join the realm of the immortal. But what if I told you you don’t have to die? What if you could live forever?”

If this was the goal, then hasn’t she….failed?

Also, while she seems to think her A.I. is cool, she never once says that it makes her immortal. She instead thinks about how the creation is something for her daughters.

But that’s not what she wanted.

She wanted to live forever.

And she can’t. She won’t.

Which I think is the very problem. Watching this documentary, especially the beginning half, made me uncomfortable (as I hope I just made you feel!). The people Ann speaks to, and even Ann herself, are all desperate for something they can’t have. It’s…sad to watch.

It touched me in a way I don’t even know how to properly describe. Because, I mean, I also don’t want to die. If immortality existed, I would take it in a heartbeat. But..to see that desperation in other people…

What do you think?