AI can help us talk with the dead. Should we?
TL;DR
It’s now possible to create AI chatbots of loved ones to interact with after their death. But that raises some difficult questions, like: If you do, how might the experience shape your grief? This is one of the questions driving a global study of digital “deadbots” — AI models trained on a deceased person’s texts, voicemails, and other personal data. Through this work, researchers are exploring what it might mean that we can now use this emerging technology to talk to simulations of the dead.
Nauti's Take
Anyone experimenting with deadbots should first establish consent, data provenance, and a clear shutdown process. The key unresolved question is whether a convincing conversation supports grieving or prolongs a digital relationship that makes letting go harder.
Robust long-term evidence is still missing.
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