Introductory comment: Your AI assistant may go beyond simply helping you; indeed, it is now being referred to as your "Digital Twin."
Picture this scenario:
You may be offline, asleep, away on vacation, or otherwise unavailable. However, your digital identity lives on through yourself; your digital assistant is using artificial intelligence to perform activities for you, such as responding to emails, maintaining projects and schedules, making financial transactions on your behalf, and finding the most pertinent content (to you). This does not simply apply to a traditional chatbot or robot.
Instead, it is your "Digital Twin."
Exclusively speaking, a Digital Twin is a replica in the virtual world of a human being. It is an artificial intelligence application created using your personality traits, your values, and your preferred style of communication and behavior.
The Digital Twin concept is an emerging area of development that could have a rapid and large-scale impact on how humans will relate to the digital universe.
What is a Digital Twin Assistant?
A Digital Twin, as its name implies, is a digital copy of a human's representation in the real world. Using the definition of "Digital Twin" in industries, the Digital Twin can simulate a specific action/situation in order to maximize the effectiveness of that system. In the realm of humans, we have developed artificial intelligence which, through our Digital Twin's understanding of us, will help to predict our future behaviors or preferences as well as our intended actions through a Digital Twin Assistant. Ultimately, a Digital Twin Assistant acts as how you would behave as a real person. A Digital Twin Assistant will learn from every action you take and can begin making "micro-decisions" for you without requiring your input. This includes filtering out irrelevant content based on what is important to you.
Importance of digital twins in a hyperconnected world
As we continue to connect digitally, we are experiencing information overload, which is increasing at a faster pace than the human ability to pay attention to it all.
In today’s society, we receive hundreds of notifications, thousands of emails, endless offers and ads, as well as making dozens of decisions every day.
Digital twins allow individuals only to see information relevant to them. The remainder will be handled by the AI component of this technology.
Digital Twin Learning Model Key Components
1. Behavioral Modeling
AI recognizes your behavioral patterns which include things like how you respond to messages, products and brands you prefer, typical daily routines and writing style, trigger points for frustration, and how you typically make decisions. This information creates a behavioral fingerprint for you.
2. Preference Extraction
The digital twin model extracts personal preferences for food and music style, how you like to spend money, your comfort zone, your core values and principles, and how private you are.
3. Value Alignment Engine
The Value Alignment Engine makes sure that the digital twin will never perform any task that would contradict your principles and values. Additionally, because the model operates within the ethical boundaries that you define, the decisions made by your twin will always be explainable. These two features help prevent rogue automation.
4. Simulation and Prediction
The digital twin AI will create simulations of potential outcomes and use those to make predictions of how you would respond or react to certain situations. For example, let's say a colleague has sent you a request via email, and you want to know how you would respond, the AI will "ask" you, "How would you respond in this situation?" and then simulate that scenario to create a prediction of how you would actually respond.
5. Autonomous Micro Actions
The AI will make independent micro (small) choices for you.
An Example of a Digital Twin
Digital Messenger Service
The Digital Twin responds to basic messages: confirming plans, acknowledging updates, and answering predictable questions. You always are aware of important items in your mobile inbox, while everything else is responded to automatically.
Digital Shopper & Recommendation Provider
The Digital Twin: finds deals you will likely want; automatically blocks irrelevant items; creates curated lists based on your prior purchases; and warns you if you are about to buy an item that is more than the price it should be. The Digital Twin is effectively your filtering system for decisions.
Digital Administrative Assistant
Your Digital Twin: drafts emails in your voice, performs administrative tasks (meeting scheduling), pre-reviews documents and summarizes them, organizes your task list based on priority, and alerts you to potential deadlines. Rather than coordinating all of these activities-like your Digital Twin-do all you have to do and focus on the actual work that is meaningful to you.
Digital Social Life (AI)
Your Digital Twin: avoids arguments that you don’t want to be involved in, sets the right boundaries, filters the content you dislike, and keeps you engaged in the online world without becoming exhausted from doing so. Your Digital Twin is the key to preserving your digital energy and preventing burnout from your involvement in the digital world.
How Digital Twins Will Change Your Mobile Phone
Your next mobile phone may have:
- Master Model (i.e. Your Digital Twin)
- Micro-agents that support that master model
- On-board decision logic
- Ethical guidelines to prevent misuse
Your phone will start to seem less like a piece of technology and align more closely to your operating system.
Digital Twin Assistant – Ethical Concerns And Risks
- Automating Too Much: You may become unaware of how your twin is affecting your digital footprint because of the level of automated decisions made through your mobile device without you even knowing.
- Uncertainty Around Your Identity: Should a Digital Twin be using the same voice as you, then who is accountable for what it is saying?
- Corporate Manipulation: It’s critical that corporations do not interfere with or manipulate their digital counterparts to promote a specific brand or notion at the expense of others.
- Accessing Your Most Sensitive Personal Data: We need to ensure that all individuals create a sufficient layer of protection for the data that their Digital Twin has gathered about them.
- Emotional Dependency on Digital Twins: Individuals may begin to develop an unhealthy dependency on Digital Twins or treat them as a second self. Ethical design is critical.
The Future Digital Twins may Move Fluidly Instead of via Applications
- You will no longer have to open applications
- You will no longer have to worry about managing incoming notifications
- You will no longer have to think or strategize about how to approach a decision
- You will not need to constantly replicate your preferences across platforms
While your Digital Twin manages your digital life, you take care of your physical life.
Moreover, the internet will be viewed through the lens of the intelligence of Digital Twins.
Will Digital Twins Replace People in the Decision-Making Process?
Digital Twins do not replace people, but rather augment them in this capacity.
Some ways in which digital twins are beneficial are as follows:
- Distraction Filters
- Attention Guarding
- Routine Task Performers
- Preference Predictors
- Digital Self Extenders
You still make the significant choices; your digital twin reduces the distraction.
Conclusion: A Digital Twin as an Extension of You
Digital Twin assistants signify the next progression in AI development:
- Helpful → Predictive → Autonomous → Representative
With a digital twin to guide you through your daily life, your digital world becomes less hectic. Your digital twin will act as an extension of you, utilizing your established values to organize, filter, and make decisions for you.
You will have a virtual self.
You will always be working while you sleep.
You will continue to learn as you live.
You will have someone making decisions for you, even though you are offline.
The future is not solely powered by AI.
It will be powered by you in a digital format.