Michael Bommer is dying, and I don't mean in the sense that everyone is eventually destined to shrug off this mortal coil. The 60-year-old German man is in the terminal stages of untreatable cancer and he might not even make it to the time you read this article. But Mr. Bommer does not intend to leave his family alone without having him to keep them company. He worked with a company called Eternos.life to upload a "comprehensive, interactive AI version of himself." The clone reportedly contains all of Bommer's memories, experiences, and insights and his family members can interact with it, asking questions or sharing the events of their lives. We'll share a video report including some examples of the clone in action below, but am I the only one who finds this horrifying? The following description comes from the Eternos website.

Michael Bommer, a 60-year-old from Germany diagnosed with terminal cancer, became the inaugural client of Eternos.life, an innovative AI-powered legacy platform. Using this platform, Michael worked closely with legacy advisors to craft a comprehensive, interactive AI version of himself, allowing family and others to engage with his life experiences and insights through video. This lifelike model responds to questions about his life, decisions, and can even generate new ideas. 

We at Eternos, motivated by the desire to create lasting legacies beyond mere photos and documents, were so deeply moved by the emotional impact seen when Michael and his wife previewed this groundbreaking technology. Michael reflects on the ease of creating his AI with Eternos, ensuring a part of him will endure, providing a meaningful connection for future generations. 
Eternos co-founders Robert and Andy LoCascio when learning of Michael’s condition, reached out to Michael and immediately gave him access to Eternos, where he could preserve his essence through an AI that captures his voice, personality, and memories.

This is just the next step on the road to transhumanism and it should be alarming to our entire species. Some people incorrectly see this as a possible way to cheat death and live forever, but it's not. The clone in the story above is not Michael Bommer. It's just a copy of him. Bommer will not experience anything that the clone experiences. He'll be dead and gone. What value his family might derive from interacting with the clone is unclear. It may be able to replicate all of his memoris and even his mannerisms, but it will not be able to duplicate emotions. It's still a machine. 

Eternos isn't providing Bommer's family with a robot that looks like him, but it's only a matter of time. The robots are on the way. But is that the sort of thing that families could eventually get used to? I don't want to be hanging around with and talking to someone that I know for a fact is dead. That's just creepy. It seems downright ghoulish to me. I know I wouldn't want someone or something going around living my life after I've passed away. I asked my wife last night if she would be interested in having me do what Mr. Bommer did. (It costs between ten and fifteen thousand dollars.) She recoiled and said absolutely not. But apparently there is a market for this type of "service" out there.

Here is the video from NewsNation that I mentioned above. You can hear from Bommer himself from his deathbed and also hear from his clone. A disturbing content warning should be included for obvious reasons.