Talking “fictitiously” with historical figures such as Hitler is now possible using an application, however this type of Artificial Intelligence still causes controversy.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has proven to be a useful tool in different areas and industries in recent years, but it has also been embroiled in various controversies, the most recent being unethical uses of tools such as ChatGPT and characters you can chat with in the Historical Figures chatbot.
Sidhant Chadda is the software engineer behind Historical Figures, a chatbot available on Apple devices that aims to allow a person to “converse” with a famous deceased figure.
“The application uses advanced Artificial Intelligence technology to allow users to have conversations with more than 20,000 historical figures from the past,” is the description on the App Store.
Those who download the app receive 100 digital coins or credits for free, and every time you ask something, you lose one.
For the same, you have in-app purchases such as 100 coins for $3.99 or the maximum of four thousand coins for $99.99.
This allows some historical figures to be “blocked”, since they require from 500 coins to be able to talk with them like Queen Elizabeth II or Adolf Hitler.
Precisely the latter and its main collaborators are the ones who have generated the most controversy because, although the user is warned when starting the chat that “it may not be historically accurate, check the factual information”, it is feared that certain ideological currents or promote misconceptions.
The latter because when “talking” with Hitler, he has commented that killing Jews during World War II “was a terrible mistake”, although necessary, something for which there is no evidence that he really said.
This even prompted Yael Eisenstat, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center for Technology and Society, to comment to NBC that having fake conversations with Hitler and other anti-Semites is “disturbing” and “will provide fodder for fans.”
For the same reason, he hopes that the developers will review how their tool is designed and eliminate Hitler and other Nazi figures.
Furthermore, he is not the only historical figure who has had controversial responses, for example, Vladimir Lenin commented that Ukrainians and Russians should live in the same state.