I have just weeks left to live — but thanks to AI, my family can talk to me forever

Human Interest

By Alex Mitchell

Michael Bommer’s days are numbered but his presence will carry on — thanks to artificial intelligence.

Everything changed for Bommer, a 61-year-old software designer from Berlin, Germany, when he received a devastating colon cancer diagnosis two years ago. After many procedures and ups and downs, the married father of four has recently come to terms with these next few weeks likely being his last.

But his family may never truly have to say goodbye: Bommer meticulously input his intimate recollections, speech patterns and overall knowledge into a first-of-its-kind, sophisticated AI program — one heavily expedited to be completed before he passes.

“It’s giving me the opportunity to leave my memories in the vault,” he told The Post.

Weeks of testing the novel AI has shown spot-on accuracy in how it can rationalize and speak as Bommer would.

Bommer’s decision to directly input his likeness into a computer is eternal, but the terminally ill, yet optimistic father said there’s a simple reason why he agreed to it all. Something he will miss most is telling his loved ones about life, society and history — a role Bommer cherishes as the patriarch of his family.

“I’m now very sad that I cannot go on to be the explanation-bearer for the family — to be the one where children and grandchildren, come to me and say, ‘Hey, explain the world to me.’”

He’s also eager to have it not only ease his family’s pain but perhaps give them advice in his own voice in times they need it most.

Now, through this emerging technology, he can do just that — in perpetuity.

“It gives me, so to speak, this kind of closure,” Bommer, who is bilingual, said.

‘The start of forever?’

It all began in March when Bommer posted an emotional note on social media, revealing that his time was running short.

That note caught the attention of an old friend and colleague, Robert LoCascio, founder of the publicly traded AI service LivePerson.

LoCascio — motivated by the loss of his own father — had spent a year developing Eternos.life, an AI program that allows people to interact with a digital replication of loved ones through their voice and words.

The user-friendly format is practically identical to writing prompts with ChatGPT, only the responses come in both text and speech, a groundbreaking concept he thought would help heal and comfort those grieving a lost loved one.

Hearing of Bommer’s unfortunate fate, LoCascio reached out to his longtime friend and asked a historic question: Would you want to be immortalized in AI?

He said yes in a heartbeat.

“I’m not the memoir guy. I’m not the guy who writes a memoir,” he said. “I’m the technology guy, I love technology, I’ve seen what that technology can do in the past, and I’m totally delighted about this opportunity.”

Knowing he will be digitally enshrined, Bommer takes solace in the fact that Eternos.life is a secured program that only approved loved ones can access.

“We had to basically construct two things. One is, how do we capture everything from the person?” LoCascio told The Post, adding that his team “had to accelerate development” to finish while Bommer is still alive.

How man becomes machine

Speaking into a microphone and often around loved ones, Bommer engaged in several interviews about his life from school into adulthood. They varied from Bommer’s personal history to much more intimate moments like how he proposed to his wife.

“The other part is that we get about 300 [vocal] training phrases. That’s what makes him an AI,” LoCascio added.

Bommer would read phrases with specific emotional inflections so that he sounded way different saying something like “close the door” than he would from “I love you!”

He and his whole family were floored by how the program was able to accurately capture his essence.

“We were sitting here while doing the first test very early in the process and my wife said, ‘Hey, this is you,’” Bommer said, mentioning that it also was spot on with phrases he’s never spoken — in German and English.

LoCascio explained that the AI works in three parts: talking about the life and times of Bommer, allowing his virtual self to advise those interacting and a third “imaginative” mode to tell bedtime stories or write things like a touching poem to his wife.

No one has participated in such a sophisticated program to the extent Bommer has, LoCascio said, and technology is moving quickly.

“Eventually, we’re going to move on to him as a video, like really as a person,” LoCascio added. “But for the high quality we want, we’re only at voice right now.”

There are other AI programs dedicated to memorializing humans forever, but Eternos.life said it will be the first to use machine learning to create reason like its user would.

The company also noted that the program has enough intuition to maintain the values the person abided by during their life, essentially allowing the person to live on in digital format.

The next phase for Bommer’s Eternos.life AI is that when it recalls stories of his life, pre-input photos and videos will accompany the text and voice to create an artificially intelligent neural network that embodies the subject.

LoCascio’s goal for when the product is fully launched is to have people input anecdotes throughout their lives like a diary as something they plan to leave behind.

Technology’s healing power

This project has been a blessing to Bommer and his grieving family, who are looking for silver linings.

The experience also became a special bonding moment with his two biological sons, 30 and 24, as “they were totally delighted with what they learned from me.”

“We were forced into this situation and found a lot of little fun in finding out the small things about me, which they didn’t know yet,” Bommer said.

As for his wife, Anett, she’s planning to ask the program to explain things as if her husband were in the room — like what to do with car trouble.

“Perhaps I will have him write me a poem too,” she told The Post.

But Bommer’s project isn’t just for family who are here and now. It is also designed for his grandchildren to get to know their grandpa, whenever they make it into the world someday.

Over the weekend, Bommer celebrated his 61st birthday and a “life party” with hundreds of loved ones.

Many came with suggestions, more moments and musings to add to the AI, which he says “has changed the rest of my life dramatically.”

“It’s very simple. I had a fabulous life. I have a fabulous wife,” he said. “I would neither give the life or my wife away for 15 more years. So, I’m all about accepting my fate in exchange for what fabulous life I’ve had.”

As for being a part of AI history and keeping his legacy alive for his family and future generations, Bommer put it best: “As a dying person, man, does this feel good.”