For Immediate Release: June 26, 2024 – New York, NY and Berlin, Germany
Michael Bommer has become the first person to have a custom Eternos AI has passed away
Michael Bommer, the first person to have an Eternos AI passed away on June 25, 2024. Michael captured his life story, knowledge, character, and beliefs in an interactive AI that is now privately available to his family and friends. Those with access can interact with his AI that shares his story and also provides guidance in his synthesized voice. The public is welcome to learn all about his incredible journey at https://eternos.life/.
Michael Bommer is widely recognized as being the very first person to create an interactive AI that shares their story in their own voice. He was a successful tech entrepreneur and devoted many of his final days to this effort. He found the strength to do countless interviews with major media outlets around the world.
Michael had an incredible impact on many people not only as a colleague but a friend. His legacy is one of inspiration, warmth and mental strength. He leaves a wealth of memories that we will cherish forever behind. Michael will never be forgotten.
Co-founders Robert and Andy LoCascio commented “Michael’s brilliance and courage ensured that we not only had an amazing AI, but someone who was willing to champion it. We enjoyed working with him and he had huge impact on our development efforts. He has heralded a new era that blends humanity and technology. His experiences and intelligence will be available to his children, grandchildren, and all those who come after. This was inevitable, and he was the very first one to do it!”
Co-Founder Robert LoCascio stated: Michael and I have been friends for many years. He was diagnosed with cancer two years ago and sadly he is coming to a place where he will not be able to fight it anymore. When I found out, I immediately reached out to Michael and told him about Eternos. He loved the idea that he could preserve his voice, personality, memories, and beliefs for his family and descendants. A few days ago, he was able to interact and listen to his customized AI for the first time. He and his wife were blown away by the quality and accuracy of the responses delivered in his actual voice. It gave them both a real sense of hope for the future. Eternos features synthesized Microsoft Neural Voice combined with a unique technology platform. We love Michael, and welcome him to the Eternos family as Eternos AI number 1. We appreciate the opportunity to preserve him for eternity and he will be in our hearts and minds forever
Co-Founder Andy LoCascio stated: When we started working with Michael it represented some significant challenges for our development team. We were still at least 8 weeks away from having the bulk of the application in place. We had limited time to get all the data capture, transcription, and chat functions ready. Eternos is a massive build that has already consumed several hundred man-days. We had to reprioritize all of the open tasks to get Michael what he needed. The Eternos process includes audio synthesis (speech to text), a multi-layered content curation process, AI model building, and speech synthesis (text to speech). We took raw audio from Michael and then built a multi-layered model with a custom chat user interface that uses his own synthesized voice. Our team is very proud of what Eternos can do. We were all driven by our desire to provide Michael with the first comprehensive AI specifically built to pass experience and knowledge to future generations.
About Eternos: Eternos is the union of cutting edge AI technology with humanity. Eternos preserves all the things that make us who we are. Our experiences, emotions, travels, and achievement along with the video, pictures, and documents we captured in our journey through life. It learns and grows, and will guide future generations for eternity in your actual voice. Learn more and request a demo at https://eternos.life/.
About Michael Bommer
Michael Bommer was born in Dudweiler Saar, Germany. He is the father of Anton and Jakob and lives with his wife Anette in Berlin.
He has decades of executive experience in the software and IoT sector. Michael holds a technical degree in mechanical engineering, the foundation of his extensive career in Germany, Europe and the US.
In 2002 Michael joined Genesys Telecommunications GmbH where he held the position of VP DACH. His team of 45 consisted of all functions including sales, marketing and sales support.
Michael joined Nuance Communication GmbH in 2008 where he restructured DACH in line with Nuance’s global goals.
In 2012 he founded Relayr, a successful German IoT startup which has since become international, and was acquired by Munich RE. Since then, Michael has been part of several IoT focussed start-ups and is one of the initial founders and investors in Next Big Thing – a venture studio for the machine economy.
In 2013 Michael joined LivePerson, the enterprise leader in digital customer conversations, as SVP EMEA. After three successful years Michael grew the business from a UK based organisation to cover all EMEA regions including Germany, Spain, Italy and France. The region grew from 65 FTE to over 170 FTE contributing to over 30% of the companies YRR.
English Video Transcript – Michael Bommer
Yeah, first of all, I’m very excited about it. Even before I knew about the opportunity you’re building, I had conversations with my wife about how, after I’m gone, the thing she will miss most is me being the Explanation Bear. That’s my nickname from her because I’m always the one explaining things to her. She loves to ask questions and listen to my voice explaining. So even before you talked to me, I was thinking about a Siri or an Alexa with my voice. Now, being able to add my personality and story to that is a great opportunity. I think that if you want to leave something behind for your grandchildren or children, then this is a very good opportunity to help them with your advice and experiences. So, all in all, I’m extremely excited to be the first. This is one trait I have always wanted to be the first anyway. You might remember times when we always tried to invent new things and be the first in the market with our ideas. So being the first is a great opportunity, and I’m extremely thankful for that.
I think that generations have always benefited from the knowledge of the past. Unfortunately, we were never able to keep this knowledge structured and present for future generations. I know myself, asking about my grandparents and their experiences. I got some of it, but not all. I even had the experience when I was recording the first tales and my son was the interviewer that he said, “Oh, I never knew that.” So a lot of the details and interesting things about my personal past for the next generation are often lost because we didn’t have the opportunity to preserve them. I hope that the next generations will benefit from the knowledge and reassurance of their grandparents and great-grandparents and be able to use that for their life decisions.
So, on one hand, reminiscing and having the opportunity to go back and remember the times and give them a structure is very intense. It helps me remember what has happened and go through my own thoughts and experiences. On the other hand, it is very emotional. I think about the highs and lows of my life and how I want to be remembered. Finding the fine line between what I was and what I wanted to be was one of the most important and exciting parts of recording my past.
You might have seen that I sent out a Facebook post about closure some time ago. For me, closure is important. It’s about finding an end to something and wrapping it up. Eternos helps me find closure to the story of my life. It’s like saying, “This is the story, this is me, this is what I have.” And then taking this closure and making it available for my wife, my kids, and even future grandchildren is a feeling of great relief. You ask what is there when you’re not there, and I know that I cannot shape what’s there when I’m gone. But now I have the opportunity to pass on what I feel about myself and my world. This was a great relief in the end, a very deep emotional situation.
I have to say, you never really imagine yourself or put yourself out there. How would you sound? How would you look? How would you behave? But here’s a situation that is interesting. You never really brought this to an end. You always had it imagined. Now, what Eternos does is it puts this person, this personality, this appearance, into something concrete. So suddenly, you face yourself, which you never did in your life. This was something deeply emotional and touching.
Deutsches Video-Transkript – Michael Bommer
Ich fühle mich natürlich unglaublich aufgeregt. Interessanterweise habe ich sogar, bevor du auf mich zugekommen bist, mit meiner Frau schon darüber nachgedacht und diskutiert. Sie hatte gesagt, dass das, was sie am meisten vermissen wird in der Zeit, wenn ich nicht mehr da bin, ist die Gelegenheit einfach zu mir zu kommen und eine Frage zu stellen. Ich bin hier zu Hause der Erklärbär genannt und Annette freut sich, genauso wie meine Kinder, zu mir zu kommen, eine Frage zu stellen und dann von mir die Dinge erklärt zu bekommen.
Und das ist die große Möglichkeit, die ich halt bei Eternos sehe, dass ich nicht nur diese einfache Frage beantworten kann, sondern dass meine Persönlichkeit, meine Geschichte eine Rolle spielen kann, sodass auch die Generationen nach mir von dem profitieren können, was ich erlebt habe und natürlich auch von den Meinungen und von den Überzeugungen, die ich über die Zeit erfahren habe. Der Erste zu sein ist natürlich für mich immer wichtig. Das war schon früher so und das haben wir gemeinsam erlebt, dass wir als Erster mit einer Idee auf dem Markt sein wollten, dass wir als Erster etwas lösen wollten und das macht natürlich Eternos für mich besonders spannend. Ich bin total dankbar für die Gelegenheit.
Ich glaube, dass es für jede Generation wichtig ist zu erfahren und zu wissen, wie es eigentlich den Generationen davor ging. Ich weiß, dass ich viele Fragen hatte an meine Großeltern und Urgroßeltern, die nie beantwortet werden konnten. Ich glaube, dass es für gerade junge Menschen wichtig ist, zu wissen, wer und welche Hintergründe in ihrer Vergangenheit lagen, um auch die Selbstfindung zu erleichtern. Es ist gut zu wissen, wie war das denn damals und welche Entscheidungen wurden getroffen. Ich hoffe, dass die zukünftigen Generationen dann viel, viel mehr von dem Wissen, was in der Vergangenheit jetzt verloren gegangen war, viel mehr von dem Wissen profitieren können und dass die Selbstfindung einfach einen Schritt voraus ist.
Interessanterweise ist es in erster Linie dann auch noch mal so eine Erinnerung, eine Reise durch die Erinnerung, die forciert wurde dadurch, dass ich jetzt die Zeit mir genommen habe, um das alles aufzunehmen. Es kamen viele Dinge hoch und tief aus dem Leben, die wahnsinnig spannend, aber auch dazu geführt haben, dass ich mir überlegen musste, was willst du eigentlich erzählen, wer bist du eigentlich? Und natürlich möchte man mit der besten Seite erinnert werden, so nach dem Motto, ich war der King, ich war der König vom Dschungel, aber eigentlich war ich ja nur einer der Affen. Und diese feine Linie dazwischen, zwischen dem, wie möchte ich eigentlich gesehen werden und wer war ich eigentlich? Also diese Linie zu finden, das war eine der spannendsten und interessantesten Erlebnisse jetzt auf der Zeit, wo ich das aufgenommen habe.
Für mich ist es unglaublich wichtig, einen Abschluss zu finden in Dingen. Ich war auch letztens gerade in einem Facebook-Post von mir zu lesen, wo ich den Abschluss gesucht habe und den gefunden habe, und wie gut mir das tut. Und mit Eternals finde ich den Abschluss der Geschichte meines Lebens. Völlig unerwartetes Geschenk am Ende, dass ich in der Lage bin, die Geschichte meines Lebens abzuschließen, sie rund zu machen und zu sagen, das bin ich. Und dann natürlich als zweites, das weitergeben zu können an die nächste Generation, an meine Frau, das weiterlebt. Man macht sich sehr, sehr oft Gedanken über das, was ist danach, nicht für einen selber, sondern für die, die bleiben. Und ich weiß, dass ich darauf keinen Einfluss an sich habe. Aber ich weiß jetzt zumindest, dass jeder, der möchte, nachfragen kann, wie das bei mir ist, welche Meinung ich habe oder welche Ansichten er hatte und vielleicht sozusagen auch ein bisschen dazu beitragen kann, wie es in der Zukunft weitergeht. Das war eine sehr, sehr tiefgreifende, emotionale Erfahrung.
Natürlich stellt man sich im Leben immer vor, wer man ist und wie man klingt und wie man sich darstellt, aber das bleibt immer eine Vorstellung, das bleibt immer eine Fantasie und jetzt plötzlich habe ich mich selbst gehört. Ich habe gehört, auch wenn ich nicht mehr da bin, wer ich bin und wie ich aussehe. Das heißt, ich musste mich und ich konnte mich das erste Mal mir selber gegenüberstellen und das war eine sehr tiefe, eine sehr, sehr emotionale Erfahrung. Ich würde es Schicksal nennen, ich habe mir immer gewünscht, dass es eine Möglichkeit gäbe, mich und das, was ich bin, festzuhalten und es einer nächsten Generation zur Verfügung zu stellen oder meiner Frau eben weiter die Gelegenheit zu geben. Das ist genau das, was Eternus mir jetzt bietet. Und es ist eine wunderbare Erfahrung, dass so etwas tatsächlich passieren wird.