Startup wants to make people immortal in the metaverse.

A British startup is working on a way for people to 'live on' in a virtual world after they die. They are then given an avatar that looks like them and moves and talks like them. As technology advances, that avatar should become more realistic.

The 'live forever' mode is a feature of Somnium Space's virtual world, also known as a metaverse, that allows people to store as much information about themselves as possible. The data is then used to create an avatar, which talks, moves, and sounds in the same way. Even after a user's death, that avatar remains active. This would allow people to continue communicating with relatives if they so desired.

Artur Sychov, the founder and CEO of Somnium Space, came up with the idea after learning that his father had an aggressive form of cancer. He realized how little time he had to devote to him. Sychov claims he couldn't bear the thought of his children, who were only a few years old at the time, growing up without any memories of their grandfather.

The goal, according to Sychov, is to create an avatar that behaves almost exactly like a real person. "You'll meet the virtual person and have no idea for the first ten minutes that it's AI (artificial intelligence). That is the intention."

According to the entrepreneur, such innovations will put the metaverse on the map as a new place where people can have valuable experiences. "People believe it's about selling NFTs and other products, but that's not the case. It's much more complicated than that."

Sychov claims that a massive amount of data, hundreds of times more than what smartphones can collect, is required to create such an avatar. As a result, virtual reality (VR) is the best solution.

VR could be used to collect a wide range of information, including how people move, their facial expressions, their voices, their various emotions, and much more.

The avatar can then be created. Somnium Space has collaborated with Teslasuit, a company that creates full-body VR suits, to make interactions with that avatar even more realistic. Users would be able to "touch" avatars as a result of this.

When you 'grab' something, the suit sends electrical signals to specific parts of your body, such as your fingertips.

The first data collections for Somnium Space will begin later this year. Following that, the first AI avatars are expected to be created next year. While Sychov does not expect those early versions to be convincing, he believes that as technology advances, avatars will become more realistic.

The better the AI becomes, the better it will be able to create new versions of your avatar. This means that even after your death, your relatives will be able to see updated versions of you.

For users of the VR world, the feature will be turned off automatically. Sychov emphasizes that his company wishes to differentiate itself from major social media platforms like Facebook and Google by never collecting unsolicited data from users. Customers who voluntarily pay for the 'live forever' mode have their data kept.

There will be a cost because the company must store all of that data. It currently costs around $50 per year. According to Sychov, this figure could be even lower, but there will always be costs associated with storing large amounts of data.

Microsoft is working on a similar project.

Somnium Space is not the only company working on this type of technology. Microsoft has been working on a similar project since last year. It applied for a patent for "person-specific conversational bots" in January of last year. According to the patent application, they could be based on deceased people.

Microsoft's technology, unlike Somnium Space's, would not be compatible with VR. Instead, a bot will be created based on the images, depth information, and video data of that person. Messages on social media, letters, and voting data can all be used.

Both concepts are reminiscent of an episode of the science fiction show Black Mirror. In the film Be Right Back, a woman loses her partner in an accident and then uses a service that mimics his voice and personality. Later, that AI personality is implanted in a robot body that is nearly indistinguishable from a human being.