Artificial Intelligence seems to be the future, finding ways to prolong the past.
Even in death, the late, great Suzanne Somers continues to be honored by her husband Alan Hamel, who is sharing why he chose to “clone” his late wife using artificial intelligence.
“Obviously, Suzanne was greatly loved, not only by her family, but by millions of people. One of the projects that we have coming up is a really interesting project, the Suzanne AI Twin,” Hamel told People magazine.
Hamel says he and Somers, who died in October 2023 at 76 after a longtime battle with breast cancer, spoke for decades about ways to immortalize her. Thanks to friend and computer scientist Ray Kurzweil, they created something unique.
“(Ray) became our friend 30-some years ago and we talked about this. We knew it was coming. It took decades to happen, but he knew it was going to happen, and he shared that information with us,” Hamel said.
A demo robot of Somers first debuted at a conference in March.
It Was Somers’ Idea
“So it was Suzanne’s idea. And she said, ‘I think we should do that. She said, I think it’ll be very interesting and we’ll provide a service to my fans and to people who have been reading my books who really want and need information about their health.’ She said, ‘Let’s do it.’ So that’s the reason we did it. And so I love being able to fulfill her wish.”
The AI clone was fed “all of Suzanne’s 27 books and a lot of interviews that she has done,” in order to fully encapsulate the actress, Hamel explained. “Hundreds of interviews” were also utilized “so that she’s really ready to be able to be asked any question at all and be able to answer it, because the answer will be within her.”
“It was Suzanne,” he said of the demo. “And I asked her a few questions and she answered them, and it blew me and everybody else away,” he explained. “When you look at the finished one next to the real Suzanne, you can’t tell the difference. It’s amazing. And I mean, I’ve been with Suzanne for 55 years, so I know what her face looks like, and when I just look at the two of them side by side, I really can’t tell which one is the real and which one is the AI.”
Hamel says his first experience with the robot was initially “a little strange.”
“The first time I spoke to Suzanne AI, for the first two or three minutes, it was a little strange. But after that, I forgot about the fact that I was talking to a robot and asking her questions and getting answers, and it happens that fast for me, getting used to the whole idea.”
Next Steps
“Once I’m satisfied that we have everything, then we’ll put her on SuzanneSomers.com and we’ll invite all her fans and all our customers to come and talk to her. They can come and just hang out with her. They can ask her any questions they want. She’ll be available 24/7, and I think it’ll be really wonderful,” he added.
“I feel really good about being able to deliver what Suzanne wanted and doing so that it’ll be something that basically will, should, go on for generations. I think our family loves the idea, really loves the idea. We’ve talked about it a lot. And they said, ‘We’re going to get to the point where it’s not going to seem weird, and it’ll just be another way to communicate with people we cared about.’ I’m glad to hear that from my family because I wasn’t sure how they would take it, but they’re all young and very successful, and they thought this would be a great tribute to Suzanne herself.”
In addition to her husband, Somers’ is survived by her son Bruce, and stepchildren Stephen and Leslie, as well as many grandchildren.
