Stressed About Your Child? Tamagotchi Children in Metaverse will Obey You Well

These Tamagotchi children in Metaverse will give you the experience of parenthood.

Virtual children that will play with you, cuddle you, and even look like you will soon be commonplace in 50 years and could help to combat overpopulation as has been claimed by an artificial intelligence expert. These computer-generated offspring called Tamagotchi will only exist in the immersive digital world known as the 'metaverse', which is accessed using virtual reality technology such as a headset to make a user feel as if they're face-to-face with the child. They will cost next to nothing to bring up, as they will require minimal resources, according to Catriona Campbell, one of the UK's leading authorities on AI and emerging technologies. She stated, 'As the metaverse evolves, I can see virtual children becoming an accepted and fully embraced part of society in much of the developed world.'

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been a leading voice on the metaverse concept, which is seen as the future of the internet and would blur the lines between the physical world and the digital one. Ms. Campbell believes that people will one day be able to use high-tech gloves that are able to deliver tactile feedback to replicate physical sensations. This would allow someone to cuddle, feed, and play with their digital offspring as though it were a real child.

The AI experts said the virtual children would likely have photo-realistic faces and bodies – thanks to CGI and advanced machine learning – and would be able to recognize and respond to their parents with the help of voice analysis and facial tracking. In her new book, AI by Design: A Plan for Living with Artificial Intelligence, Campbell argues that concerns about overpopulation will prompt society to embrace digital children. She describes them as the 'Tamagotchi generation' — a reference to the handheld digital pets that became wildly popular among Western youngsters in the late 1990s and the 2000s.

Who are These Tamagotchis?

For anyone lucky enough to not remember the cursed creatures, Tamagotchis were electronic pets encased in LCD displays that owners tried to keep alive. They were a big deal in the 90s, like the Macarena and white dog poop. As a potential harbinger of what's to come, they typically die quickly. The average lifespan of a well-cared-for Tamagochi is a mere 12 days. This is why Catriona Campbell, describes these digital kids as the "Tamagotchi generation." "We're already well on our way to creating the Tamagotchi generation which, for all intents and purposes, will be 'real' to their parents," Campbell said in extracts of her new book shared by the Telegraph.

The low cost of virtual kids isn't their only selling point. Campbell believes they could also solve the overstated problem of overpopulation. She envisions digital babies with photo-realistic bodies, simulated emotional responses, and AI-powered interactive capabilities. Naturally, they'll live in "the metaverse." The parents would also be able to interact with them in digital environments such as a park, swimming pool or living room. They will also be able to choose how quickly the children grow up, if at all, and can share conversations and listen to a baby's coo and giggle as part of the vision for the futuristic technology.

Well, The Idea is Not Completely New

There is already a proof of concept for virtual children. 'BabyX', which is an experiment by New Zealand-based company Soul Machines, is aimed at humanizing AI to make it more appealing for the public to interact with. The virtual child's 'brain' is composed of algorithms that deduce what is good and bad. This enables BabyX to learn how to respond to interactions just like a real baby. Its movements and expressions on screen are also devised from the actual movements of babies. For example, when a researcher holds up the word 'milk', the baby identifies the letters and says the word. The researcher then praises the baby verbally, which releases virtual dopamine. The baby then learns that correctly identifying words like 'milk' is good, and learns to do so more in the future. Reinforcement learning like this, similar to a real baby, helps BabyX decide how to react to certain situations.