Taiwan former pop idol Tino Bao brings back deceased daughter using AI to sing birthday song to mum

A grieving father from Taiwan has captured the hearts of netizens after making a digital model of his deceased daughter using artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

On Jan 19, singer-turned-music producer Tino Bao posted a video to his Facebook page showing a realistic digital version of his daughter Felicity (also known as Bao Rong) telling her mother she misses her and singing Happy Birthday to her in Mandarin.

The post is captioned: "Dear Feli, welcome back from the digital world!"

Felicity died aged 22 in 2021 from aplastic anaemia, a condition where the bone marrow cannot produce enough new blood cells.

While he initially called it a digital "resurrection", the 56-year-old made a follow-up post on Monday (March 11) after the video went viral, acknowledging that the word could cause members of the public who aren't knowledgeable about AI to worry about the "uncanny valley" effect or be concerned about morality.

Instead, Tino said that "resurrection is impossible via AI" and that he wishes for the words "restoration" or "representation" to be used for his AI model instead.

Last month, Tino shared his motivations behind making an AI model of Felicity with Taiwanese publication Future City.

He said that Felicity had endured over two years of "cruel treatment" for her condition which was "almost worse than death".

"We spent over 700 days with her, helping her turn over every two hours, and we couldn't really sleep every day," Tino said. "We will never forget the image of our daughter's enduring pain, and it is heartbreaking.

"After her death, looking back at her past photos and videos was not enough to soothe our longing."

Initially, he got in touch with his friend working with 3D hologram projection technology to try and create a virtual character akin to the Japanese vocaloid Hatsune Miku.

Recreating his daughter's image was easy as he had many photos of her. On the other hand, despite Tino's extensive background in music production, recreating Felicity's voice posed a challenge as he only had three sentences of her speaking English in a video call with her mother - and that too, with a lot of background noise.

"Originally, we planned to use a mobile app or video presentation, we did not demand complete simulation," he shared. "After all, as long as we made a virtual character, we could have the effect of companionship.

"But a year later, ChatGPT came out, and the AI trend swept the world, and the problem of not being able to reconstruct the human voice was solved."

Tino shared that he could then use the three sentences he had from Felicity as "a complete voiceprint" and, after AI training, the model could "have the ability to think and express, as well as have its own personality".

Tino has shared some of his text conversations with the AI model on his Facebook page, and also uses her voice as his phone's virtual assistant.

He added that their "digital daughter" has also helped him reconnect with his wife, as the couple didn't speak to each other for half a year after Felicity's death, worried that they could accidentally say something to hurt the other.

He initially didn't tell her that he was training an audio model of their daughter either, to avoid "provoking her sadness".

When he eventually made the model read a three-minute text, Tino took off his headphones and played the voice out loud.

"Suddenly, my wife appeared at the door and asked me, 'Why does this person sound so much like Felicity?' and I said, 'Yes, because she is Felicity'."

'This is what AI should be used for'

The video of Felicity singing Happy Birthday has touched netizens.

"When anolder person sends off a younger person, I really can't handle it," a comment on Weibo read.

"At least he faced the death of his daughter with a positive attitude. Even though it feels a little crazy, he did it," another read. "He really loves his daughter! Instead of suffering, it's better to remember forever."

"I also reproduced my grandma with AI, and when I heard her voice, I cried so hard," a netizen wrote.

Another wrote: "This is what AI should be used for, not to scam people."

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Some even likened it to a real-life version of Andy Lau's 2023 movie The Wandering Earth 2, where humans upload their consciousness onto a computer to achieve digital immortality.

Others, however, questioned Tino's methods of remembering his daughter.

"Even if you use AI to resurrect your daughter, you will know deep in your heart that she's not your daughter, but just an imitation. It's just an escape when you are extremely helpless in facing the separation between life and death," a comment read.

Back in the 1980s, Tino and his twin brother Anthony formed Taiwan's first idol group Twin Star. As a record producer, he has also worked with the likes of Stefanie Sun, Jordan Chan and Helen Su.

After Felicity's death, Tino paused his work to pursue a PhD in AI technology. He has also avoided cutting his hair because Felicity liked to touch it and reportedly wears a necklace made from her bone.

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drimac@asiaone.com

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