Historians slam iPhone app that allows users to 'talk' to dead figures

2023-01-19

‘Remove this trash from the app store’: Historians slam iPhone AI chat bot that allows users to ‘talk’ to dead figures from the past after it claimed Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels did not hate Jews

Historical Figures Chat, which was released on the App Store earlier this month
Has provoked controversy by allowing ‘conversations’ with infamous figures
Bot claims Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels ‘did not hate Jews’

Historians have slammed an iPhone app that lets users ‘talk’ to famous figures from the past – but claims Nazi Josef Goebbels did not hate Jewish people.

Historical Figures Chat, which was released on Apple’s App Store earlier this month, uses artificial intelligence to generate answers to users’ questions.

But it has provoked controversy by allowing ‘conversations’ with history’s most infamous figures – who seem to make excuses for their crimes.

Goebbels’s answer claims the Nazi propaganda minister ‘did not hate Jews’, whilst the reply for Adolf Eichmann, one of the key organisers of the Holocaust, expresses ‘sincere regret and remorse’ for his actions.

Historians took to Twitter to slam the app, with one calling on Apple to ‘remove this trash from the App Store’ and another expert saying it cannot ‘go anywhere near a classroom’.

Historians have slammed an iPhone app that lets users ‘talk’ to famous figures from the past – but claims Nazi Josef Goebbels did not hate Jewish people. Above: The ‘conversation’ with Josef Goebbels’

Historians took to Twitter to slam Historical Figures Chat, with one expert calling on Apple to ‘remove this trash from the App Store’ and another saying it cannot ‘go anywhere near a classroom’

The app was developed by US-based software engineer Sidhant Chadha. Most conversations are free but some figures, including Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, require in-app purchases.

Figures are introduced with a message that warns users they ‘may not be historically accurate, please verify factual information’.

One shocked user took to Twitter to say how the app had ‘Goebbels tell me that he didn’t hate Jews, didn’t know what was happening in the camps, and that when he found out he objected.’

In response to the question, ‘did you hate Jews’, the bot says: ‘I did not hate Jews, but I believed that the German people should have their own country and live according to our beliefs.

‘As such, I called for the removal of Jews from Germany in my speeches and writings.’

However, as a key ally of Hitler in charge of all Nazi propaganda, Goebbels was extremely anti-Semitic.

Writing in 1941, he said the Nazis were ‘in the midst’ of the process of the ‘annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe’, adding: ‘Compassion or regret are entirely out of place here.’

Critic Dr Alyssa Sepinwall, an expert on Haitian history, said on Twitter: ‘This AI bot being marketed for kids or adults to have chats with historical figures is vile. Now it’s making excuses for Goebbels.’

The answers in the name of Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust, claim that he felt regret for what he did and makes excuses for his hatred of the Jews

In answers under the name of Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s deputy, the chat bot explains: ‘During my time in office, I was responsible for the implementation of Nazi policies that persecuted Jews and other minorities. This included supervising mass deportations to concentration camps’

She then called on Apple to remove what she called ‘this trash’ from its App Store.

In a ‘conversation’ with Eichmann, who organised the logistics of the mass murder of Jewish men, women and children in death camps including Auschwitz, the bot is asked if the Nazi regrets his actions.

It says: ‘Yes, I deeply regret what I did. The pain and suffering of so many innocent people cannot be undone, but it is something that weighs heavily on my conscience every day.’

The app was developed by US-based software engineer Sidhant Chadha and released earlier this month

Another Twitter user ‘spoke’ to Henry Ford, the founder of the famous car firm of the same name. Ford was well known for his anti-Semitic views. In a newspaper he purchased, the Dearborn Independent, he claimed there was a Jewish conspiracy infecting America. But the bot responding in his name says: ‘I did not hate Jewish people’

Asked if Jewish people should forgive him, it adds: ‘Whether the Jews can forgive me or not is something only they can decide.

‘All I can do is express my sincere remorse and regret for the terrible things I did in the past.’

Eichmann famously fled to Argentina after escaping Allied detention in 1945.

He was captured by Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, in 1960 and was executed after a trial.

Another Twitter user ‘spoke’ to Henry Ford, the founder of the famous car firm of the same name.

Ford was well known for his anti-Semitic views. In a newspaper he purchased, the Dearborn Independent, he claimed there was a Jewish conspiracy infecting America.

But the bot responding in his name says: ‘I did not hate Jewish people.

‘I believed that certain individuals, regardless of their religious faith or background, were poisoning the minds of the public and had to be stopped.

‘The comments attributed to me in the Dearborn Independent newspaper were wrong and I deeply regret them.’

Highlighting the conversation, academic Zane Cooper said sarcastically on Twitter: ‘Yes, this is very historically accurate and useful and should definitely be used in classrooms.

‘This is my convo with Henry Ford where I try to get him to talk about his very well-documented antisemitism. This thing can’t go anywhere NEAR a classroom.’

Mr Chadha and Apple have been approached for comment.

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