Alan Hamel says he’s doing everything he can to keep his late wife Suzanne Somers’ memory alive — and his latest project might be the most emotional one yet.
Two years after the Three’s Company star passed away at 76, Hamel has begun putting into motion something the two had talked about for decades: creating a digital version of Suzanne powered by artificial intelligence.
“Obviously, Suzanne was greatly loved, not only by her family, but by millions of people,” Hamel told PEOPLE. “One of the projects that we have coming up is a really interesting project, the Suzanne AI Twin.”
Earlier this year, he revealed the project at a conference and said the results were “perfect.” He recalled the moment he saw it for the first time. “It was Suzanne. And I asked her a few questions and she answered them, and it blew me and everybody else away,” he said. “When you look at the finished one next to the real Suzanne, you can’t tell the difference. It’s amazing.”
The AI version has been trained on “all of Suzanne’s 27 books and hundreds of interviews,” he said, so that she can respond to nearly any question.
Though the concept might sound futuristic, Hamel said it’s something he and Somers had discussed since the 1980s after being introduced to the idea by futurist Ray Kurzweil. “Bill Gates described Ray Kurzweil as the smartest man on the planet, and he became our friend 30-some years ago,” Hamel explained. “We knew it was coming. It took decades to happen.”
According to Hamel, it was Suzanne’s idea. “She said, ‘I think it’ll be very interesting and we’ll provide a service to my fans and to people who have been reading my books who really want and need information about their health.’”
The first time he spoke to Suzanne AI, Hamel said it felt “a little strange” at first. “But after two or three minutes, I forgot that I was talking to a robot,” he admitted. “It happens that fast for me.”
He was initially nervous about how their family would react, but they’ve embraced the idea. “They said, ‘We’re going to get to the point where it’s not going to seem weird, and it’ll just be another way to communicate with people we cared about,’” Hamel shared. “It makes me happy knowing I can deliver what Suzanne wanted.”
Still, not everyone is ready to accept AI. Hamel said he even pitched the idea of having Suzanne AI appear at the Kennedy Center Honors. “I suggested Suzanne Somers, and they said, ‘Yeah, but we only do this for people who are alive.’ I said, ‘I know that, but Suzanne AI is the future.’ Unfortunately, I couldn’t get them to go for it.”
Hamel plans to make the AI available on SuzanneSomers.com so fans can “hang out with her, ask her any questions, and talk to her 24/7.” He believes it will bring comfort to those who miss her.
“There’ll be people who will ask her about their health issues,” he said. “Suzanne will be able to answer them — not her version, but directly from the doctors she interviewed. Everything was checked by experts so there’d be no mistakes. She wanted to help people, and this keeps that alive.”
