Most of us have probably heard a story like this from a friend or other, seeing a person exactly like me on the street, with whom I have an uncanny resemblance.
But imagine what it would be like if you could create your own twin, looking exactly like you, but only in the digital world.
We live in an age when digital copies of everything we have in the real world are being created – our cities, our cars, homes and now even us!
The metaverse has been widely discussed for a long time. It will be a three-dimensional virtual world, where an avatar or likeness of you will walk around. After the metaverse, now in the technology world, the discussion has also started on how to create digital twins of people.
A digital twin is meant to be an exact copy of a real-world person, but will have a unique purpose—how to further develop or respond to the real-world person.
Initially such digital twins would be sophisticated three-dimensional computer-generated images of real people. But when artificial intelligence or artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (where all things of daily life at home and outside will be connected to the Internet) are added, then the matter will reach a different level. Then you can create a twin with digital technology that learns from the real person all the time and then uses that learning to improve the real person.
Technology analyst Rob Enderley believes that before the end of the decade we will have digital versions of humans who can think.
“But before we invent them, we have to think a lot, we have to think about the ethical issues. Because when our digital twin acquires the ability to think, it will be of great use to our employers,” he says.
“What if your company creates a digital twin of you and says, look, we’ve got a digital copy of you that we don’t have to pay, why should we keep you?”
Mr. Enderley said the most important question in the age of the metaverse will be who owns such digital twins.
Our journey towards creating a digital twin of humans has already begun, like the avatars or avatars mentioned earlier.
But they are still in a very primitive state.
For example, on Meta’s (formerly Facebook) virtual reality platform ‘Horizon Worlds’, you might be able to make your avatar look like yourself, but you can’t give it any legs yet, as the technology is still in its infancy.
Oxford University artificial intelligence researcher Professor Sandra Wachter says that she can understand where the attraction is for creating a digital twin of humans.
“It’s reminiscent of the thrills of science fiction. At this point it’s really there.”
Professor Sandra Wachter said, the debate on what will happen in life, whether someone who studies law will become a successful lawyer, or become a criminal, or suffer from illness, is still in place. Whether a person is what he is in life because of his innate nature, or because of his upbringing – the debate is still there.
“It still depends on luck or bad luck, friends, family, their socio-economic background and environment, and of course their personal preferences,” he says.
Professor Wachter said artificial intelligence or AI has not yet been very successful at predicting such single social events because they are inherently complex.
“So understanding and modeling a human from the very beginning to the end of life is a long way to go before we know if that’s ever possible.”
Hence the use of this digital twin is now widespread and well underway in product design, distribution and urban planning.
McLaren and Red Bull teams in Formula One racing use digital twins of their cars.
Meanwhile, giant courier companies like DHL are now creating a digital map of their warehouses and supply chain to improve efficiency.
And our cities are now being built more and more into the digital world. Shanghai and Singapore – Both these cities have digital twins.
They are designed to improve city governance, from building, transportation and road design to city management.
For example, one of the tasks of the digital twin city in Singapore is to show how people can walk without polluting the environment.
Elsewhere, the technology is used to advise where to build infrastructure, such as underground railways.
And in many countries of the Middle East, cities are being built in the real world and the digital world simultaneously.
Dassault Systèmes, a French software company, says hundreds of companies are now showing interest in its digital twin technology.
Dassault Systèmes, for example, helped design a shampoo bottle for a company that makes hair care cosmetics.
Instead of making countless real bottles, they created digital designs, thereby avoiding the creation of a lot of plastic waste.
