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The dead need right to delete their data so they can't be AI-ified, lawyer says

theregister.com

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Re: The dead need right to delete their data so they can't be AI-ified, lawyer says

#111

Post by SyrupThinker »

slyall wrote: post #109
toomuchtodo wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Denmark to tackle deepfakes by giving people copyright to their own features - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/27/deepfakes... - June 27th, 2025 As you mention, if copyright law codifies the rights, it then becomes trivial to stick the property rights to self into a trust or other post death entity for the estate to administer and enforce. The nation state policy is the hard part.

I've seen a few mentions of that law online. It completely overturns existing copyright law and has the potential for all sorts of problems. ie If you take a photo and some random person is in the background what happens to the copyright of the picture?

Creating a copyright on one's likeness seems pretty messy in regards to that, but there is a somewhat similar idea in German law (and surely other places) that creates similar concerns for using an image or work.

We have a "right to one's image", you generally can't distribute/publish photos with recognizable people without consent. Unless they're truly just "part of the landscape" (background randos), crowds at public events, or of legitimate news/artistic interest.

I'd expect a similar threshold to apply to this Danish solution.

Re: The dead need right to delete their data so they can't be AI-ified, lawyer says

#112

Post by jlarocco »

progval wrote: post #76
jlarocco wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a more interesting question is: At what point can we give an AI agent $100, set it free on the internet, come back in a week, and it'll have $1000?

Where would the money come from?

That's for the AI to figure out. It's intelligent, right?

Re: The dead need right to delete their data so they can't be AI-ified, lawyer says

#113

Post by jlarocco »

bostik wrote: post #71
sitkack wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it killed 5 people for $200 each by shutting off their CPAP machines?

I know you're joking, but this doesn't feel too far off the mark in this world of late-stage capitalism run amok. Give it another 15 years and the bleeding edge[!] insurance companies are likely employing agents to go after clients who have become a net drain on their P&L. The agents probably won't be doing that "themselves", but instead will be offering bounties (think: contracts) on suitably well hidden assassinati…

Air Canada already tried to claim their AI chatbot wasn't their responsibility.

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240222-air-canada-chatb...

They lost, but it's amazing that they even tried.

Re: The dead need right to delete their data so they can't be AI-ified, lawyer says

#114

Post by skylurk »

progval wrote: post #76
jlarocco wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a more interesting question is: At what point can we give an AI agent $100, set it free on the internet, come back in a week, and it'll have $1000?

Where would the money come from?

Selling tokens for access to its reasoning ability? (just like the rest of us)

Re: The dead need right to delete their data so they can't be AI-ified, lawyer says

#115

Post by taway1a2b3c »

pmarreck wrote: post #110
taway1a2b3c wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? For what purpose?

I'm a 53 year old dad of a 4 year old son (the only kid I will ever have). Mortality looms. Who will advise him if something happens to me, other than a super intelligent AI who knows my values at a deep level and can imitate my responses?

I understand the motivation but I think there are dangers for your digital twin: https://qntm.org/mmacevedo

Re: The dead need right to delete their data so they can't be AI-ified, lawyer says

#116

Post by quinndexter »

jgalecki wrote: post #91
grej wrote: post #48

Out - A scammer convincing a grandmother to send money using an AI generated voice of their grandchild asking them for money In - A legal ad tech company using an AI generated deceased grandmother to ask their grandchild to purchase a product

Every day, I'm haunted by my ex. It's not Alice's fault, of course. In fact, when she found out about it, phrases like "obsessive creep" and "got what he fucking deserved" were thrown around. It was a raw breakup on both sides, and I think we're feeling it out in different ways. In my defense, she broke up with me. I feel that counts for something, ya know? It was poor timing for me that the breakup happened a month…

Great work. That's very good stuff, and yes there is.

Re: The dead need right to delete their data so they can't be AI-ified, lawyer says

#117

Post by acjacobson »

RugnirViking wrote: post #58
efitz wrote: post #49

When you’re dead, you don’t have rights anymore because you’re not a person anymore. Anything of value that survived your death- property, money, IP rights, etc. now are part of an estate which is administered and distributed according to your will and/or state law. Other than your state’s law and your will, it’s not up to you what happens to your stuff after you die. Artifacts of your existence that you did not own,…

I dont think this is actually true? You can, namely, write a will. You can choose what is done with your possesions, presumably including destroying them. Iirc there's a rule called the law against perpetuities, where you have control over your estate via the will, maximally until some time after the death of a specific named person who was alive at the time of your death. (which I find a strange stipulation)

> where you have control over your estate via the will, maximally until some time after the death of a specific named person who was alive at the time of your death. (which I find a strange stipulation)

This is a compromise of allowing some of your wishes to be fulfilled after your death while preventing long term 'dead hand' control over property and resources. You can set up a foundation dedicated to "thing" but can't control what that foundation does until the end of time.

We probably don't want to live in a world that is controlled by the wishes of someone gone for 500 years who had a view of the world completely at odds with the present. It centralizes power and ties the hands of those living in the present.

Re: The dead need right to delete their data so they can't be AI-ified, lawyer says

#118

Post by progval »

jlarocco wrote: post #112
progval wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where would the money come from?

That's for the AI to figure out. It's intelligent, right?

What can your unsupervised AI do to turn a 900$/week profit that someone else's unsupervised AI can't do for 10$/week?

Re: The dead need right to delete their data so they can't be AI-ified, lawyer says

#119

Post by tehwebguy »

Nevermark wrote: post #107
efitz wrote: post #49

When you’re dead, you don’t have rights anymore because you’re not a person anymore. Anything of value that survived your death- property, money, IP rights, etc. now are part of an estate which is administered and distributed according to your will and/or state law. Other than your state’s law and your will, it’s not up to you what happens to your stuff after you die. Artifacts of your existence that you did not own,…

> distributed according to your will So the dead do have rights, and a process for defining them.

Sort of!

Deceased people’s wills are ignored every day.

Re: The dead need right to delete their data so they can't be AI-ified, lawyer says

#120

Post by eviks »

efitz wrote: post #49

When you’re dead, you don’t have rights anymore because you’re not a person anymore. Anything of value that survived your death- property, money, IP rights, etc. now are part of an estate which is administered and distributed according to your will and/or state law. Other than your state’s law and your will, it’s not up to you what happens to your stuff after you die. Artifacts of your existence that you did not own,…

> of an estate which is administered and distributed according to your will and/or state law. Other than your state’s law and your will, it’s not up to you what happens to your stuff after you die.

That's right there at the beginning of the article!

> argues US law should give a dead person's estate a limited right to digital deletion as a defense against the exploitation of digital remains.

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