US EditionAI Companies Develop Digital Avatars to Simulate Deceased Loved Ones
AI startups create interactive avatars using digital footprints to simulate conversations with the deceased, offering new ways to engage with memory and legacy while raising ethical concerns.
- Recently, researchers and startups documented that anyone can recreate deceased likenesses and converse using AI-powered voice clones, photo reanimations, chatbots, and avatars in the digital afterlife industry.
- Market observers say two categories of companies serve the bereaved or help self-immortalization, with startups and platform business models using subscription fees, freemium tiers and partnerships.
- Phillip Willett's experiment showed AI voice-cloning sparked family talks but felt flat at times, with platforms' personalization making interactions seem more artificial.
- Ethicists caution startups offering digital afterlife services remain very new with little oversight and limited research, warning many risks affect bereaved and other vulnerable users.
- Looking ahead, platforms may reveal tensions between archival versus generative memory forms as machine learning lets avatars evolve, but critics and media theorists warn these systems erase forgetting’s role in mourning.
26 Articles
26 Articles
Can You Really Talk To The Dead Using AI: Comfort Or Illusion?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used to preserve the voices and stories of the dead. From text-based chatbots that mimic loved ones to voice avatars that let you "speak" with the deceased
Can you really talk to the dead using AI? We tried out 'deathbots' so you don't have to
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used to preserve the voices and stories of the dead. From text-based chatbots that mimic loved ones to voice avatars that let you "speak" with the deceased, a growing digital ...
The Conversation
RNZCan you really talk to the dead using AI? We tried out ‘deathbots’ so you don’t have to
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used to preserve the voices and stories of the dead. From text-based chatbots that mimic loved ones to voice avatars that let you “speak” with the deceased, a growing digital afterlife industry promises to make memory interactive, and, in some cases, eternal. In our research, recently published in Memory, Mind & Media, we explored what happens when remembering the dead is left to an algorithm. W…
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